Solitudes by Antonio Machado
solitudes. Galleries. other poems It is a collection of poems by Antonio Machado. The first edition came out in 1907. It is framed within the modernist literature and the same author defined his work as "a pruning of superfluous branches in Spanish poetry". The work revolves around everyday themes of life itself, such as childhood, memories, dreams, time and death.
In this one-TEACHER lesson we want to help you understand one of the most important books in the history of Spanish literature, so we are going to present you a summary of solitudes by Antonio Machado, in a very understandable and enjoyable way.
The work of Antonio Machado is divided into 6 sections and each of them has a main theme that will help us to show you the main argument. Here is our summary of solitudes by Antonio Machado.
1. solitudes
The first section is made up of 19 poems in which Machado wants us to accompany him through his childhood memories in Seville. Narrated images of nature are included, especially lemon and orange trees. His first poem is titled
The traveler and he tells us about the passage of time and his lost youth, which introduces us to the inner world of the author.2. of the way
In this second part of the work, Machado talks about the trip again, this time in the form of a road. This path represents life and it is the cause of all the anguish suffered by the author, who sees his life as a mere process in which he obviously spends his time. Machado stands as a spectator and waits to reach the end of the trip, that is, to death. None of the 18 poems that make up this section have a title, they are simply numbered.
3. songs
This section is much shorter than the previous ones and consists of 8 poems. This title refers to the fact that the poems written by the author have a clear influence from the Popular songs. Antonio Machado's father was a folklorist, so we can take it as a small family tribute. This section clearly shows the spring, focused especially on the month of April, which is the time in which the maximum splendor of the Sevillian tradition is experienced. The tone of these compositions is cheerful.
4. Humor, Fantasies, Notes
In this section, Antonio Machado continues talking about his beloved Seville and the color that this city exudes. The 15 poems that make up this part are characterized by a animated language, which can sometimes even seem fanciful.
5. Galleries
section of Galleries is considered as one of the most important works, since he collects a total of 31 poems and is part of the second section of the title. All the poems are completely new and unpublished and none of them appeared in the author's previous works.
6. It varies
Finally, we end this summary of Soledades by Antonio Machado with the sixth section, which is made up of 5 completely unpublished poems. Here Machado does it again memory of your childhood memories. The tone is sad again, because youth is getting out of hand. Machado explains that his childhood is already too far behind and that the only thing that inevitably approaches him is old age.
In unProfesor we discover the main characteristics of literary modernism.
write a summary of solitudes. Galleries. other poems It can be complicated, since the work is made up of independent poems that deal with different themes. However, we can observe a line regarding the themes that are dealt with and the symbols that the author lets us see.
In this work, Machado tells us about universal themes that are intertwined with each other (one cannot exist without the other). The tone with which he speaks is very intimate, as it does in many of his other works. This intimacy is what he achieves by going to his childhood memories and the emotions that Seville, the land where he was born, transmits to him.
We present you the most common topics Things to keep in mind when synthesizing the book:
- Life: Life is treated in Machado's work as everything that happens before death. He always talks about this subject from a tragic perspective and views life as something unpleasant that we can only get rid of through death. A symbol with which he explains life is the afternoon, that time of day when darkness begins to fall. The author says that it is the same thing that happens with life, that sooner or later it goes out.
- Over time: Antonio shows us a special concern for everything that is ephemeral and for the disappearance of youth. Between the lines of his poems we can find a feeling that everything is over and an anguish of knowing that he will not be able to recover the moments that have already passed.
- Death: A very important theme in Machado's work is death. The author reflects on the fact that when we die we disappear forever and it is because of the passage of time. To symbolize death, the poet uses symbols such as water, which when in motion in the The river is a sample of life, but it always ends up stopping at the sea, which represents the death.
- God: Finally, Machado makes some reflections on God and the destiny of the human soul after death. He also tells us about his desire for the absolute and his longing for omnipresence.
We hope this lesson has helped you understand the summary of solitudes by Antonio Machado, one of the most important collections of poems in the history of Spanish literature. If you want to continue discovering more exciting books, do not hesitate to consult our reading section, where we will accompany you throughout this journey through the interior of books.