Characteristics and THEME of A un dried elm by Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado It's one of the most recognized authors of the entire Spanish panorama. Both his theater and his prose have transcended over the years, but if we have to highlight something above all his work, it is poetry. And it is that, said author, he presents in his career some of the most relevant and interesting verses of Spanish poetry.

Among all these works the importance of Castile fields, a collection of poems where we find some of his most important poems, among which we highlight To a dry elm. Given its quality and nature, in a Professor we have proposed to develop the abstract and theme of To a dry elm by Antonio Machado. Go for it!

Index

1. Context of A a dry elm
2. Theme of To a dry elm by Antonio Machado
3. Summary of To a dry elm

It is not the first time we have talked about the context in which this poem was written by Antonio Machado and, in fact, we invite you to visit our other post on the text comment of the work, where we develop many interesting aspects of To a dry elm.

However, it is so essential to talk about the moment in which the author was at the time of writing it that we must fall back on it. And it is that, since 1911, his beloved wife Eleanor his was ill. In the last months of Leonor's life, Antonio Machado wrote the verses that occupy us today where he shows his restlessness, but, above all, enormous hope that his wife will recover soon and overcome her serious disease.

With that, On May 4, 1912 Machado wrote this poem and published it in July of that same year in Castile fields, little less than a month before the death of his wife Leonor. It is for all this reason that it is very important to talk about the context in which the work was written, since all this is very reflected in the summary and the theme of it.

Regarding what is related to the main theme of To a dry elm, many are those that are usually extracted from these 30 verses that compose it. However, the main theme of the work is undoubtedly the desire for recovery of his wife Leonor.

The entire poem revolves around this idea, carrying his metaphors and words in his desire for revitalization, seeing every glimmer of light as a reason for hope.

And it is that, treating the elm as an object that symbolizes his own heart, Machado presents us with a tree split by lightning, half rotten and old, which, even with all this, begins to show small green shoots on some of its branches.

East type of symbology is very typical in Antonio Machado, where the main object actually plays a metaphoric or symbolic role of some reality of the author. Likewise, another symbol widely used by the writer beyond the elm is that of spring, which we also find in To a dry elm, and that represents the circulation of time in a cyclical way.

Already entering fully into the summary of the work itself, To a dry elm it show us a graphic description, as if it were a painting, of an old elm on the banks of the Duero on a hill that, at some point in its existence, was struck by lightning.

Little by little, in his verses he describes us the tree as something decrepit and eaten by time, which serves as a shelter for ants and spiders among its bare branches. A contrast is made with the poplars of the place, which seem more cheerful or singers. Among all that decrepitude appear some colorful green leaves that are being born from the branches of the elm tree, which seems like a hopeful symbol by which the tree seems to have begun to regrowth.

In the second part of the poem, the narrator describes the future that holds for the tree, knowing that sooner or later it will be cut down and used as woodworking material, it will be used as firewood or it will simply die from nature issues ending its cycle probably in the sea. And it is that this element is a very common symbol in the writings of Machado, always representing death. Thus, the author wants to remember that green branch that stands out from the rest of the old elm tree and feels that, probably, this will not be its rebirth.

Already in the last three verses of the poem Machado reveals to us that that elm tree that we are accompanying and getting to know throughout the text is nothing more than a tree that symbolizes the author's own heart and feelings as for the situation he is experiencing at the time of writing.

It is through this self-identification with the elm that we see a possible hope of the author that everything improves and that his wife Leonor recovers soon.

If you want to read more articles similar to To a dry elm: topic and summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

• Aprenderlenguaesfacil.com (July 21, 2017). To a dry elm. Text commentary.
• Machado, A. (1912). Castile fields. Ed. Chair.
• Tenllado Doblas, J. (s.f.). To a dry elm. Antonio Machado. Letrasiessalinas.wordpress.com