Famous Spanish Poets

Looking for famous Spanish poets of the past? Want to know who the most famous modern Spanish poets are? Our guide to Spanish poetry gives you the facts & information you want to know.

Famous Spanish Poets: Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado is one of the most famous Spanish poets of the early 20th century. After a brief childhood spent in Seville which was the town of his birth he moved to Madrid where he spent several years. Machado eventually moved to Paris to continue his studies and it was here that he had the opportunity to meet several prominent French poets of the day who subsequently influenced him and motivated him to write poetry. He returned to Spain and worked as a school teacher in Castile, from 1907, which is where he met his wife Leonor. Sadly she died very young, and in 1912 he left Soria for Baeza in Andalusia. Loyal to the Republic he left Spain for France when Catalonia fell, and died there in February 1939. He is recognized as the most famous Spanish poet of the early twentieth century. Among his most famous famous are Fields of Soria, Guadarrama, Has My Heart Gone To Sleep? and Passageways.

Famous Spanish Poets: Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca was one of the most prolific and famous Spanish poets of the early 20th century. In addition to being a poet he was also a dramatist and a member of the ‘Generation of 1927′, a group of writers who promoted avant-gardism in literature.

García Lorca studied law at the University of Granada. In Madrid he joined the Residence de Estudiantes, a modern college and the academic hub of the town. During this era his associates included the writers Juan Ramón Jiménez and Pablo Neruda.García Lorca became famous even before the publication of his first collection as he would often hold public poetry recitals. As a writer García Lorca made his debut with ‘Libro De Poemas’ (1921), a collection of mythical poems.

García Lorca’s essential themes in his poetry are love, pride, passion and violent death, which also marked his own life. The Spanish Civil War started in 1936 and García Lorca was seen by the right-wing forces as an adversary. This famous Spanish poet hid from the armed forces but he was soon found, dragged from a friend’s house, and shot in Granada in August of 1936 without trial by the Nationalists. He was buried in a grave that he had been forced to dig for himself.

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