GERARDO DIEGO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, PHRASES AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Gerardo Diego Cendoya (1896-1987) was a Spanish writer and poet who was part of the Generation of 27. His work was influenced by his friend Juan Ramón Jiménez, and was characterized by his inclination towards popular and avant-garde aspects.

The writer carried out his poetic work from two perspectives. The first was related to the relative and traditional, where the romance and the sonnets stood out; and secondly he dealt with absolutism, which referred to the meaning of poetic language itself, pure poetry, so to speak.

Gerardo Diego. Source: Emeric Tauss Torday, from Wikimedia Commons

Gerardo Diego began his literary activity when he published, in 1918, La caja del abuelo, a work that belonged to the narrative genre, in the short story category. The writer also served as a professor, and was a tireless traveler in search of new experiences, knowledge and learning.

Biography

Birth, family and childhood

Gerardo Diego was born on October 3, 1896 in the city of Santander, Cantabria. His parents were Manuel Diego Barquín and Ángela Cendoya Uría. The writer was the youngest of seven children from this marriage. His father had three children from a previous relationship.

The poet's childhood was spent in his hometown, doing activities as a child, playing and learning. At the age of six he began to study singing, and made his first communion in the village church. He was characterized by being thin and tall, at times reserved and withdrawn.

Gerardo Diego's study

Gerardo Diego attended his elementary and high school studies in Santander, was a diligent student and obtained good grades. From an early age he demonstrated his taste for reading. At the age of fourteen he had already started to write, inspired by authors of the time.

When he earned his bachelor's degree in 1913, he still wasn't sure which college degree to study. So, with the help and enthusiasm of his parents, he went to Madrid where his brother was already there. Some time later, he decided to study philosophy and letters at the University of Deusto.

He finished his degree and the title was awarded by the University of Madrid. From that moment on, he began his activity as a professor of Language and Literature in several houses of study in the country, such as the universities of Soria and Santander.

Passenger love

Gerardo Diego had to go to Salamanca several times to take exams, because the University of Deusto was not authorized to do so. It was there that he fell in love with a young teacher, a friend of his sisters, who inspired him in one of his works.

The youthful romance was short, however, it motivated the writer to dedicate many verses to it, and even one of his first works, Romancero de la novia, from 1920. Just as the name of the beloved was not known, the cause of it was not known. the separation of that love loaded with letters and secret meetings.

Steps in the literary world

The first publication that Gerardo Diego made was in 1918 in El Diario Montañés with a story entitled “La caja del abuelo”. In addition, he began to collaborate in printed media such as Grial and Castellana magazines, and in other avant-garde ones such as Grecia, Cervantes and Reflector.

During the time he was in the city of Gijón working as a university professor, Diego made the decision to found Carmen y Lola, two magazines with literary and cultural content. In addition, he became a faithful follower of Spanish avant-garde poetry.

The firm steps of the writer and poet on the paths of literature made him worthy of the National Prize for Literature in 1925. On the other hand, his permanent contact with members of the Generation of 27 led him to produce Anthology, a poetic work that allowed him to give to meet many writers from that organization.

Poet's marriage

On one of the poet's trips to Paris he met Germaine Marín, a young French student. They married in 1934, and she became his life partner and main and supporter. Fruit of love the marriage had six children.

The poet and the Civil War

In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, Gerardo Diego was in France, in the city of Sentaraille, on vacation with his wife. There he remained until 1937. He did not have the need to leave the country unlike many colleagues; he sympathized with the rebels.

Upon returning to Spain, he resumed his work as a professor, but this time as a professor at the Beatriz Galindo Institute in Madrid. The war and postwar period did not prevent him from continuing to write. In 1940 Ángeles de Compostela came to light, and a year later Alondra de Real.

Last years of Gerardo Diego

The writer and poet was always active in his work, achieved recognition and prestige. In 1947 he held a place in the Royal Spanish Academy, and he also won several awards, including the Cervantes, in 1979. He died on July 8, 1987 in Madrid.

Style

Gerardo Diego's poetic work was characterized by having two forms or variants. The first was related to traditional elements where the sonnet, the tenth and romance stood out as styles of verses. On the other hand, the second had to do with the innovation of the avant-garde current.

The language he used was clear and simple, with a constant use of symbols and metaphors. In many of his verses, he left out punctuation marks, and also devoted himself to developing varied themes such as music, love, art, nature and religion.

Within his style the writer also developed relative and absolute poetry. Relative poetry was the one he raised from the need to express the circumstances as they were; he applied it to social, religious, artistic and loving arguments.

Monument to Gerardo Diego, in Madrid. Source: JL de Diego, via Wikimedia Commons

In the case of absolute poetry, he left reality in second order to connect with the creative, that is, with what came out of himself. The works Evasion, Foam Manual and Poems on purpose fell into this category, just to mention a few.

Featured quotes

Below are some of the outstanding quotes or phrases of Gerardo Diego as a sample of his philosophical thought and poetic sensitivity:

- "My thoughts are mountains, seas, jungles, blocks of blinding salt, slow flowers."

- "Poetry is the incorruptible language."

- "Your figure was the flower of a dreamy nimbus."

- "Raise your eyes to me, your slow eyes, and close them little by little with me inside."

- “I am not responsible for being attracted to the countryside and the city, tradition and the future; that I love new art and be ecstatic about old; that the rhetoric I have made drives me crazy, and I take the whim of making it again - again - for my own private and non-transferable use ".

- "At the moment of truth, which is to search for oneself in the objective, one forgets everything and sets out to be faithful only to one's own sincerity."

- "Drawn I carry in my blood and my body, body and blood of my country."

- "If you are the rosebush and the roses, the night of my verse and the stars, to whom will I dedicate this brief sky, this bush, this fountain, this wakefulness?"

- "The guitar is a well with wind instead of water."

- "And through your eyes the storm and the blizzard and the fear of fairies."

Plays

The following are the most important works of Gerardo Diego's abundant literature:

- The romance of the bride (1920).

- Image. Poems (1918-1921).

- Soria. Gallery of prints and effusions (1923).

- Manual of foams (1924).

- Human Verses (1925, work with which he won the National Prize for Literature).

- Stations of the Cross (1931).

- Fable of Equis and Zeda (1932).

- Poems on purpose (1932).

- Angels of Compostela (1940).

- Real Lark (1941).

- Anthology (1941).

- Romances (1918-1941).

- Poems on purpose (1943, complete edition).

- The surprise (1944).

- Until forever (1948).

- The moon in the desert (1949).

- Limbo, Las Palmas de Gran Canarias (1951).

- Visitation of Gabriel Miró (1951).

- Two poems (1952).

- Incomplete biography (1953).

- Second dream: homage to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1953).

- Variation (1954).

- Amazon (1956).

- He continued with: Eclogue to Antonio Bienvenida (1956).

- Landscape with figures (1956).

- Love alone (1958).

- Songs to Violante (1959).

- Glosa a Villamediana (1961).

- The branch (1961).

- My Santander, my cradle, my word (1961).

- Sonnets to Violante (1962).

- Luck or death. Poem of the bullfighter (1963).

- Chopin's Nocturnes (1963).

- El jándalo (1964), Love Poetry 1918-1961 (1965).

- The elucidated cordovan and the pilgrim's return (1966).

- Moral odes (1966).

- Variation 2 (1966).

- Second anthology of his verses, 1941-1967 (1967).

- The foundation of wanting (1970).

- Among his last writings were: Divine Verses (1971).

- Civil cemetery (1972).

- Carmen jubilar (1975).

- Wandering Comet (1965).

Brief description of Diego's most representative works

Madrid house where Gerardo Diego lived. Source: Luis García

As can be seen, the literary work of this Spanish author was constant, prolific and full of varied themes. The most representative works of this writer will be described below:

The bride's romance

This work was a book inspired by love, where the author made his personality manifest. The verses that make up the poems fall within the meter of octosyllables and hendecasyllables. The stanzas also present an assonance rhyme and are traditional in nature, on the other hand, they have quite a few autobiographical elements.

Fragment of "Dreams"

“Last night I dreamed of you.

I no longer remember what it was.

But you were still mine

you were my girlfriend, what a beautiful lie!

Last night maybe i saw you

leave the church slowly, in the hands the rosary, head down and collected.

Who could be your boyfriend

(soul, dress up)

in an eternal and sweet dream, white as the stars! ”.

Foam manual

This book was the grouping of a set of poems in which Gerardo Diego separated from his conception of reality, to write from his feelings. The verses are more complex because the theme became connected with emotions and a high level of sensitivity.

Fragment of "Rain"

"Bridge up, bridge down

the rain is walking

from the river my wings are born

and the light is from the birds.

We are sad, you are too, when will spring come

to skate on the platform…

Cross the rain to the other shore.

I am not going to mistreat her, she speeds the mill

and regulates the clock.

The sun will rise upside down tomorrow

and the empty rain

it will fly to take refuge in the bell ”.

Fable of Equis and Zeda

Gerardo Diego, on the right. Source: Anonymous photographer, via Wikimedia Commons

This writing was a representation of the stories of mythology, where creativity and passion are observed. Gerardo Diego made use of his freedom to compose it, through metaphors, and with a structure of six verses and six stanzas, with a greater art meter.

Let us remember, when appreciating the poem that will be presented below, that the author decided, on many occasions, to dispense with punctuation marks, hence the “free” structuring of many of his writings.

Fragment of "Love"

"She wore a combo dress

an archangel project in relief

from shoulder to foot its exact line a rhombus

that to harmonize with the carnation dares

in its path in two moons or in two fruits

absolute spaces were opened.

Love love obesity sister

Bellows puff until the hours bulge

and meet when leaving one morning

that God is God without co-workers

and that the cabin boy's hand is blue

-love love love- from six to seven…

And summarizing the lover his saying

gathered round sighs

and abandoned to the smoke of caprice

slid down two rails

a circus session started

in the eighteenth constellation ”.

Real lark

This work was one of the author's most recognized books, and it also notably influenced the work of the poets who made a name for themselves after the war in Spain. It was the combination of avant-garde with manners, in a full act of creation by the poet.

The weight of this manuscript is such that it allowed Diego to be considered one of the most representative figures of the Generation of 27.

Fragment of «Successive»

"Let me caress you slowly, let me slowly check you, see that you really are, a continue

from yourself to yourself extensively.

So I want you fluid and successive, you spring from you, furtive water, music for the lazy touch.

That is how I love you, in small limits,

here and there, fragment, lilies, rose, and your unit later, light of my dreams ”.

References

1. Gerardo Diego. Biography. (1991-2019). Spain: Instituto Cervantes. Recovered from: cervantes.es.
2. Moreno, R. (2011). Gerardo Diego. (N / a): Language and Literature. Recovered from: rosamorenolengua.blogspot.com.
3. Tamaro, E. (2004-2019). Gerardo Diego. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
4. Contemporaries of Miguel Hernández: Gerardo Diego Cendoya. (S. f.). Spain: Miguel Hernández Cultural Foundation. Recovered from: miguelhernandezvirtual.es.
5. Gerardo Diego. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org.