A dry elm of A. MACHADO: text comment

Antonio Machado It's one of the most relevant authors of the Spanish panorama. This renowned writer worked on literature in many of its expressive forms, savoring theater, prose, and poetry. It is especially in the verses where he has been valued the most, and among all his publications his work has always stood out. Castile fields.

Also, within this poems there are some verses that have been studied for generations in the academic field, among which we highlight To a dry elm. Therefore, and taking into account the challenge that this entails, in a Professor we have decided to carry out a short text comment of To a dry elm by Antonio Machado. Can you come with us?

Entering fully into the analysis of To a dry elm, we must begin with the context in which the poem was made. And it is that, written May 4, 1912, Antonio Machado wrote this poem to express his unease.

His wife Leonor, which would die a month after the publication of Castile fields, she was already very ill for quite some time. As a result of this malaise, Antonio Machado wrote in verse his

recovery wishes towards his beloved wife, as well as the discomfort that this whole situation caused him.

This is how the poem we know as was born from the hand and heart of Machado. To a dry elm.

The elegy of To a dry elm is composed of a verse type known as silva. This silva of which we speak is characterized by being made up of hendecasyllable and heptasyllable verses grouped together without dividing stanzas and with a consonant rhyme.

However, not all the poem is structured according to the rules of the silva, but we find the first fourteen verses characterized by what is defined as a sonnet with alternate rhyme. This sonnet is composed por fourteen hendecasyllable verses normally divided into four stanzas, which are two quartets that, as their name suggests, contain four verses, and two triplets, which have three verses.

The alternate rhyme that we find in the part of the sonnet, where the odd verses present one rhyme and the even verses a different one, develops as follows: ABAB ABAB CDC DEE.

Usually, we found 30 verses that are structured by two different lyrical natures; the sonnet and the silva, as well as a final triplet that stands out from the silva. In addition, the fact that verse 24 is free of rhyme should be emphasized, as part of Machado's silva.

Among all these verses stands out the descriptive and narrative style. In fact, it is in the sonnet (the first 14 verses) where we find a clear descriptive tendency in the third person, about everything related to the elm itself that gives its name to the poem itself, as we can see in the first stanza by way of example:

To the old elm, split by lightning

and in its rotten half,

with the April rains and the May sun

some green leaves have come out.

On the other hand, as for the rest of the text, and as we had already advanced, what is especially rewarding is the narrative mode. We see this throughout the silva, addressing the elm itself in the second person and narrating his wishes. As an example, we can take these last verses, which, curiously, are part of the final triplet:

My heart waits

also, towards the light and towards life,

another miracle of spring.

With everything seen in the previous point, we are left with the synthesizing nature of the text written by Machado or inductive because, starting from the secondary ideas or small parts that make up the text, one arrives at the whole or the thesis of the poem itself.

Finally, and now going fully to the internal structure of To a dry elm by Antonio Machado, we find a poem divided into three well differentiated parts, and which would be defined as follows:

1. Soneto: This first part is composed of verses 1 to 14. Here we find the entire descriptive part of the text, where the author describes in detail the elm, the main object of the poem, and contracting it with the poplars. Likewise, we also find a description of the place where it is located (on the Duero hill in Soria).
2. Silva: Composed of the verses that we find from 15 to 27 is where we find the narration within the poem. Here the author shows his desire for the elm to sprout again and reviews the possible effects that the tree itself may soon suffer.
3. Third: Also in narrative style, in the last three verses of the poem (28, 29 and 30) with rhyme 7a, 11b, 11a, it is discovered that the metaphor that has been used in the rest of the poem with the elm actually refers to the very heart of the poet. And that is where we see Machado's incessant desire for the recovery of his wife, Leonor, from him.