DÁMASO ALONSO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

Dámaso Alonso y Fernández de las Rendondas (1898-1990) was a Spanish linguist, poet, teacher, literary critic, and also a member of the Generation of 27. He has been recognized for his work in the field of stylistics on language.

The work of Dámaso Alonso was largely oriented to the study and exhaustive and deep analysis of the texts of the writer Luís de Góngora. Such is the importance of his research, that it is an obligatory reference to understand the Gongorian literature.

Portrait of Dámaso Alonso, by Josep Pla-Narbona. Source: Josep Pla-Narbona, via Wikimedia Commons

As for Dámaso's poetry, it was characterized by being expressive, creative and for having a high aesthetic level, whose main purpose was the defense and preservation of the Spanish language. On the other hand, the linguist was part of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Royal Academy of History.

Biography

Damaso's birth and family

The poet was born in Madrid on October 22, 1898. He came from a family of good reputation and financial strength. His father was Dámaso Alonso y Alonso, a mining engineer, and his mother's name was Petra Fernández de las Redondas Díaz. His childhood was lived in the town of La Felguera, in Asturias.

Academic training

The first years of school training, Dámaso studied in La Felguera, which was his place of residence and also the seat of his father's work. Later he studied high school at the famous Jesuit College of Chamartín in Madrid.

Damaso was an outstanding student, especially in mathematics, which aroused in his father the illusion that he would study engineering. However, his taste and passion for literature was much stronger, and he confirmed this when he discovered the poetry books of the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío.

So the young Dámaso Alonso decided to study philosophy and letters, and law at the University of Madrid. At the same time, he completed his training at the Center for Historical Studies, where he had Ramón Menéndez Pidal as a mentor. The poet also participated in the activities of the Student Residence.

Friendships of Dámaso Alonso and the Generation of 27

During his constant visits to the Residencia de Estudiantes, Alonso made friends with young people who were making their way into literature and who became great writers. Among his friends were: García Lorca, Luís Buñuel, Rafael Alberti, Manuel Altolaguirre and Vicente Aleixandre, whom he met at Las Navas del Marqués.

Years later, that group of friends began the Generation of 27 after a tribute to the famous Luís de Góngora. Perhaps it was this commemorative act that led him to study one of the most important poets of the Spanish Golden Age.

It should be noted that Dámaso Alonso, as a crown for the nascent group of writers, won the National Poetry Prize in 1927.

Marriage of Dámaso Alonso

The poet married Eulalia Galvarriato, a Spanish writer, in March 1929, who became his inseparable life partner. They met at the Student Residence, when she taught a Spanish course for foreigners.

Activities as a teacher and writer

Dámaso Alonso served as professor of language and literature at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. In 1933 he became part of the University of Valencia as a professor, until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Plaque with verses by Dámaso Alonso. Source: Menesteo, via Wikimedia Commons

As for many intellectuals, the outbreak of war was not easy for the poet. Damaso had, with some colleagues, take refuge in the Student Residence. The years following the uprising he lived in Valencia, where he continued his literary activity in the cultural magazine Hora de España.

In 1941 he became part of the group of professors at the University of Madrid in the field of Romance philology. During the following years he served as a visiting professor at universities such as Cambridge, Stanford, Berlin, Leipzig and Columbia.

Memberships, recognitions and distinctions

Both his literary work and his career as a professor made Dámaso Alonso worthy of several recognitions. In 1945 he was elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), and held the “d” chair. Eleven years later it became part of the Royal Academy of History.

Luis de Góngora, reason for study and inspiration of Dámaso Alonso. Source: Diego Velázquez, via Wikimedia Commons

He was also a member of the Association of Hispanists, and between 1962 and 1965 he served as its president. Later, 1968 to 1982, he was director of the RAE. In addition, on June 9, 1973 he entered the Mexican Academy of Language as an honorary member.

Germany and Italy also recognized his work, and made him a member of the Bavarian and della Crusca academies of Sciences, respectively. In 1978 he was awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, part of the money he received was donated to the Royal Spanish Academy for further research.

Death of Dámaso Alonso

Dámaso Alonso enjoyed a long life, completely dedicated to literature, teaching and research, which brought him great satisfaction. However, her health began to deteriorate as she entered her ninth decade of life. Her last two years she lost her speech. She died of a heart attack at the age of 91, on January 25, 1990.

Style

Pure poetry

The literary style of Dámaso Alonso, in the case of poetry, was oriented more to emotion than to beauty. He considered that reality could perfectly be part of it. His first works were influenced by the pure poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez, therefore, the word mattered more than rhetoric.

The language he used in his early works was simple and full of emotion, such is the example of Pure Poems, Poemillas de la ciudad. Then his work changed its nuance, became more crystalline and human, he played a lot with the lyric, as evidenced in El viento y el verso.

Uprooted poetry

With the success of the war in Spain and all the consequences, Dámaso's spirit changed, and this had a direct influence on his work. In such a way that after the conflict his poetry was of pain and at the same time of rage.

It was common at that time to use a racy and violent language that screamed in every word and every verse to disagree with injustice and anguish.

This postwar poetry by the author was called by him as "uprooted poetry" since it was not protected by the fascist government. He always had the religious as an important point, especially God, as the culprit of the situation of chaos that the world was experiencing.

In such a way that works like Man and God were within that current, and the characteristics they presented were opposite to the classical norms. Free verses predominated, and the language was more direct, and at the same time dramatic.

The stylistics of Dámaso Alonso

Within the author's style it is necessary to mention his study of stylistics, important in the development of his work on Luís de Góngora. This has to do with the analysis of language in terms of the use of artistic and aesthetic elements, in order to understand and understand the message.

For Alonso, stylistics were related to intuition, and at the same time to emotions, meanings and imagination. He considered that it had to do with speech; concluded that for each style in a literary work there was a unique stylistic variety.

Plays

Poetry

As a poet, Dámaso Alonso expressed creativity, a high degree of passion and depth in his works. His poetry was inspired by the experiences of his existence, that is why over time it evolved and changed. The following were the most prominent titles:

- Pure poems. Poemillas of the city (1921).

- The wind and the verse (1925).

- Sons of Wrath (1944).

- Dark news (1944).

- Man and God (1955).

- Three sonnets on the Castilian language (1958).

- Chosen poems (1969).

- Poetic Anthology (1980).

- Joys of the view. Pure poems. Poemillas of the city. Other poems (1981).

- Anthology of our monstrous world. Doubt and love about the supreme being (1985).

- That day in Jerusalem: car of the Passion, for radio broadcast (1986).

- Poetic Anthology (1989).

- Album. Verses of youth (1993).

- Verse and literary prose, complete works. Volume X (1993).

- Personal Anthology (2001).

- They called a river Dámaso: poetry anthology (2002).

Brief description of the most representative collections of poems

Pure poems. Poemillas of the city

Juan Ramón Jiménez, writer who influenced the work of Dámaso. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

This work was published in 1921. Being one of Alonso's first works, it contains features of pure poetry. The language was simple, and the tonality was quite welcoming, they were short poems, mostly two stanzas. He dealt with topics such as life, eternity, love and nature.

Fragment of "Autumn Verses"

"This long avenue

It seems.

Today, with the fall, has

your half light, your white and thin flesh, your aristocracy

and your way of wrapping me

with long eyelashes

in doubtful cold

and weak.

Oh if i could now

kiss you chastely

red and sweet mouth

forever!".

The wind and the verse

It was the second collection of poems by Dámaso Alonso, conceived between 1923 and 1924. In this work he still preserved the influence of Juan Ramón Jiménez with pure poetry. However, the poetic theme was simpler and at the same time human, the play on words and the religious predominated.

On the other hand, the poet raised an opposition between the perspective of the real and the ideal of life. The symbolism was present, as a way of expressing that the reality of existence could be lost, in addition time and beauty are added as the path to the desire for the ideal.

Fragment of "Cancioncilla"

"Others will want mausoleums

where the trophies hang, where no one has to cry.

And I don't want them, no

(I say it in a song)

Because I

I would like to die in the wind, like seafarers, at sea.

They could bury me

in the wide trench of the wind.

Oh how sweet to rest

to be buried in the wind, like a captain of the wind;

like a captain of the sea, dead in the middle of the sea ”.

Children of wrath

The first publication of this work came out in 1944; two years later, Dámaso Alonso produced a second edition, to which he made some corrections, and added material. It has been considered the most outstanding and renowned work of this Spanish author.

As a post-war work, its content was about the anger and pain that the poet felt about the situation and the chaos that the Spanish experienced. He exposed topics such as humanity, emotions, freedom and individual responsibilities in a universe plunged in calamity.

Luis Buñuel, friend of Dámaso Alonso. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

The work has been seen as a criticism of the author towards society. Therefore, the language he used was rude and defiant, often offensive and derogatory, intended to elicit reactions. God is present as a being who, according to the author, does not always act on time.

Fragment of "Woman with alcuza"

"Where is that woman going, crawling down the sidewalk, now that it is almost night, with the cruet in hand?

Come closer: he does not see us.

I don't know what is more gray, if the cold steel of his eyes, if the faded gray of that shawl

with which the neck and head are wrapped, or if the desolate landscape of your soul.

It goes slowly, dragging its feet, wearing out sole, wearing slab, but carried

for a terror

dark, by a will

to dodge something horrible… ”.

Dark news

The theme of this work was of an existential nature, a constant questioning of life. God is present as the creator of all things that are not always, in the author's judgment, perfect, and his help is not guaranteed. The religious concern on the part of Dámaso Alonso was evidenced.

The poet used analogies and symbolisms such as light and shadow, to explain the good and the bad of the world. On the other hand, it highlighted the need for human beings to find the path to spirituality as the way out to a more peaceful and serene existence, as the end of chaos.

Fragment of "Dream of the two hinds"

“O chiaroscuro treasure of the sleeper!

Pulled down the edge, flowed sleep.

Just space.

Light and shadow, two swift hinds, they flee towards the deep pool of fresh waters, center of everything.

Is living nothing more than the brush of its wind?

Flight of the wind, anguish, light and shadow:

shape of everything.

And the deer, the tireless deer, paired arrows to the milestone,

they run and run.

The space tree. (The man sleeps)

At the end of each branch there is a star.

Night: the centuries ”.

Man and god

The poet began to write this book in 1954, based again on questions about human existence, and especially in the relationship with God. In addition, he referred to the vision of the beauty of the world, as well as human pleasures.

Alonso developed the idea of ​​man as the central point of the world, and of God looking at him through him. He also referred to divine greatness, and the freedom of the human being. The language used was simple, serene and with a broad reflective character.

Fragment of "Man and God" (central poem of this collection of poems):

“Man is love. Man is a beam, a center

where the world is knotted. If man fails

again the void and the battle

of the first chaos and the God who shouts Enter!

Man is love, and God dwells within

from that deep chest, in it he becomes silent;

with those snooping eyes, behind the fence, their creation, stunned encounter.

Love-man, total rule system

I (my universe). Oh god don't annihilate me

you, immense flower that grows in my insomnia! "…

Three sonnets on the Castilian language

This work by Dámaso Alonso was oriented in a certain way to the importance of language, poems constitute the birth towards the need of the word for communication. For the poet it meant light in darkness, order within chaos.

The first sonnet is related to awakening to life, and the influence of speech, which, even when not understood, has powerful meanings. The second refers to the world that is inherited, where one grows and learns, and the last with the brotherhood produced by the language that is shared.

Fragment of "Brothers"

“Brothers, those of you who are far away

behind the immense waters, the near

from my native Spain, all brothers

because you speak this language which is mine:

I say 'love', I say 'my mother', and crossing seas, mountains, plains, -oh joy- with Castilian sounds, a sweet effluvium of poetry reaches you.

I exclaim 'friend', and in the New World, 'friend' says the echo, from where

It crosses the entire Pacific, and it still rings.

I say 'God', and there is a deep cry;

and 'God' in Spanish, everything responds, and 'God', only 'God', 'God' the world fills ”.

Joys of sight

This book was written during the poet's old age, and was perhaps a reflection of the fear of losing his sight after a serious retinal disease. However, it was also the spontaneous expression of the beauty of the world, with all its nuances, and the advantage of being able to see it.

The work was composed of a poem structured or divided into ten parts. In the fourth, which is called "Two prayers", you can see and feel Dámaso Alonso's desire to continue enjoying the pleasures that the sense of sight gives him.

Fragment of the "Prayer in search of light"

"My God, we do not know your essence, or your operations.

And your face? We invent images to

explain to you, oh inexplicable God: as the blind

with the light. If our soul is shaken in our blind night

with longings or terrors, it is your pen hand or your claw

of fire that caresses or scourges… We lack

Of the deep eyes that can see you, oh God.

Like the blind man in his pool for light. Oh, all blind! All plunged in darkness! ”.

Doubt and love about the supreme being

It was one of the last works of the poet, and was related to the immortal soul. With respect to the subject, Dámaso Alonso presented three hypotheses: the soul ceases to exist when the body expires; there is a non-soul that refers to brain functions; and lastly, the eternal soul that needs the presence of God.

Fragment

“Is there a possibility of the supreme 'Being'?

I did not believe it, the more I thought to beg

that such a 'Being' existed, and perhaps, existing, the soul could be 'eternal' forever.

And is it that the omnipotent 'Being' would do it?

Philology

In his philological work or text studies, it was where stylistics predominated. The following were the most relevant works of Dámaso Alonso in this area:

- Portrait of the adolescent artist (1926, he signed it under the pseudonym Alfonso Donado).

- Critical edition of Las soledades de Luís de Góngora (1927).

- The poetic language of Góngora (1935).

- The poetry of San Juan de la Cruz (1942).

- Spanish poetry: Essay of methods and stylistic limits (1950).

- Contemporary Spanish poets (1952).

- Studies and essays gongorinos (1955).

- Galician-Asturian Notes of the Three Oscos (1957).

- From the dark ages to the Golden (1958).

- Góngora and Polyphemus (1960).

- Spanish songbook and ballads (1969).

- Galician-Asturian oral narratives. San Martín de Oscos I: Memories of childhood and youth (1969).

- Around Lope (1972).

- Oral narratives in Galician-Asturian from Los Oscos. Stories of healing formulas and charms by Carmen de Freixe. San Martín de Oscos (1977).

Dámaso Alonso, a comprehensive lawyer

Finally, it can be said that Dámaso Alonso's work as a philologist and poet was dedicated and at the same time meticulous. Characterized in all its forms by creativity and the need to go beyond what was at first glance, its linguistic and expressive qualities gave it a place of honor.

His work on stylistics, especially that based on Luís de Góngora, has become a reference for analysis and studies. On the other hand, Alonso, with his poetry, expressed his continuous concern for the religious issue, and even more so about the relationship between man and God, spirituality was recurrent.

His poetic work has also been considered one of the most beautiful, and at the same time painful, due to its subject matter, form and substance. The poet gave way to philosophical issues from a human perspective, through the anguishes, desires and concerns that he himself came to feel.

References

1. Cordero, R. (2012). The stylistics of Dámaso Alonso. (N / a): The Century of Living Science. Recovered from: elsiglodelacienciaviva.blogspot.com.
2. Damaso Alonso. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org.
3. Tamaro, E. (2004-2019). Damaso Alonso. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
4. Damaso Alonso. Biography. (2017). Spain: Instituto Cervantes. Recovered from: cervantes.es.
5. Dámaso Alonso (2019). Spain: Royal Spanish Academy. Recovered from: rae.es.