PEDRO SALINAS: BIOGRAPHY, STAGES AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Pedro Salinas Serrano (1891-1951) was a renowned Spanish writer who expressed his thoughts and ideas through literary genres such as essays and poetry. He was part of the Generation of 27, a group that sought the maximum balance between the traditional and the innovative in Spanish literature.

Serrano stood out for his interest in making poetry free, both in rhyme and rhythm. Not in vain the writer Federico García Lorca asserted that if he was a poet because of divine power, he was also a poet because of his skill and passion. He was one of the most outstanding poets of his time.

Pedro Salinas. Source: sapiens, via Wikimedia Commons

The work of this poet is usually divided into three stages. In each of these he made the concept that he elaborated on poetry coincide: he affirmed that poetry was a path to truth in which beauty, inspiration and naturalness were the pillars of his creation.

Biography

Pedro Salinas was born on November 27, 1891 in the city of Madrid. His parents were Pedro Salinas Elmos, a merchant; and Soledad Serrano Fernández. The father of the future poet died when he was barely six years old.

Education

Institute of San Isidro. Source: Luis García

The first years of academic training for Pedro Salinas were at the Colegio Hispano Francés, and later at the Instituto de San Isidro.

In his younger years he enrolled at the University of Madrid to study law. Later he withdrew to study literature and philosophy.

First jobs

Salinas began to write from his youth. At the age of twenty she had the opportunity to publish her first poems in the magazine Prometheus.

In 1913, at the age of twenty-three, he was part of the Ateneo de Madrid; it was there where, in the company of several colleagues, he proposed a greater use of free verse, without metrics.

Marriage

For a time Salinas went to Paris to work at the Sorbonne University. During that period he met and married the one who was his life partner for more than three decades: the young Margarita Bonmatí Botella. As a result of the marriage, Soledad and Jaime Salinas were born.

While the couple lived in France, the writer had the opportunity to translate the works of the Frenchman Marcel Proust.

However, not everything was favorable. Salinas was unfaithful to his wife with the American Katherine Whitmore, with whom he maintained a relationship through letters for a long time. Because of this affair, Pedro's wife tried to commit suicide.

Whitmore later married and she and the poet lost contact, but they saw each other shortly before the Spaniard's death. The American authorized her correspondence with Salinas to be published 20 years after the poet's death.

Work as a professor

After his stay in France, the poet returned to his native land. In 1918 he managed to become a professor at the University of Seville and was so for almost eleven years. He also served as a professor of Spanish at the University of Cambridge.

Some time later, in 1930, he began teaching at the Language School of the Spanish capital and it was in that decade that he succeeded in founding the literary Index magazine. She was also part of the Center for Historical Studies.

Exile and death

When the Spanish civil war broke out in 1936, Salinas was in Santander. There he saw the opportunity to flee to France, and then go to the United States as an exile. In the north he worked at Wellesley College and Johns Hopkins.

During the time he lived in North America, he received an invitation to work at the University of Puerto Rico, specifically in 1943. Five years later, on December 4, 1951, he died in the city of Boston. His remains were buried in the Puerto Rican capital.

Stages

Pedro Salinas was one of those writers of phases, of periods, probably influenced by personal experiences or by the need to innovate within his area, always focused on perfection. The three characteristic stages of his work are described below:

Initial stage

This stage includes the years of youth of Salinas; It goes from 1923 to 1932. The poet was strongly influenced by the work of the Spanish writer Juan Ramón Jiménez and his so-called pure poetry, which consisted in seeking the essence of words and in rejecting rhetoric.

In this cycle Pedro Salinas was preparing for his next phase. This he did looking for his poetry to be perfect and, at the same time, that love was the central theme. Omens, Sure chance, and Fable and sign were the works that emerged at this stage.

Stage of fullness

It includes from 1933 to 1939. It is considered the stage of fullness because it corresponds to the time of his romance with Katherine Whitmore; therefore, love was once again the main theme. The voice due to you, Reason for love and Long lament belonged to this stage.

Exile stage

This phase ran from 1940 to 1951. The sea in the city of San Juan in Puerto Rico inspired him to write El contemplado. The war also motivated him, so he expressed his dissatisfaction with nuclear weapons through his work Zero.

Complete works

The works of Pedro Salinas were characterized by a constant presence of love and finesse. In addition to this, he played with the alliance between the intellect and the emotions, which made his poetry natural and spontaneous. His verses were simple and often free.

Poetry

His main poetic works were the following:

Theater

Salinas also wrote for theater. In this literary genre the following works stood out:

- The director (1936).

- They and their sources (1943).

- The treasure island (1944).

- The head of the medusa (1945).

- On insurance (1945).

- Cain or a scientific glory (1945).

- The fountain of the archangel (1946).

- The price (1947).

- The blackmailer (1947).

Translations

Cover of "On the way to Swann", a work translated by Pedro Salinas. Source: Ketamino, via Wikimedia Commons

Most of the translations made by Pedro Salinas were related to the works of the Frenchman Marcel Proust.

- On the way to Swann (1920).

- In the shadow of the girls in bloom (1922).

- The world of Guermantes (1931).

Brief overview of the most important works

Omen

This work by Salinas belongs to its initial stage. He wrote it motivated by his mentor, the also Spanish writer and poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. It was conceived under the parameters of what became known as pure poetry.

In the first part you can see the balance and harmony. Later the poetry of contradictory content arises; In this context, he expressed the sufferings and put in evidence the opposition of things: he is the man upset. In the work the writer made special use of nouns and adverbs.

Fragment

"The barren land, no tree

nor mountain, the dry sky, orphan of cloud or bird;

so still the two, so alone…

The earth is already down here

and the sky up there, already the plain is immense

and the little walker ”.

The voice due to you

This work is part of the trilogy about love that Pedro Salinas began to write in his prime stage. The saga was made up of the titles Reason for love and Long regret.

With this work the author sought the expression of love, the encounter and discovery of the woman who loves herself.

It is known that the central theme of the book stems from the reality of the writer. Even though he was married, Salinas fell in love with an American student with whom he had a long-standing relationship through letters.

The work is composed of about seventy poems. The poet did not organize them; therefore, the structure lacks an enumeration itself.

The rhythm of reading leads to joy, passion and restlessness. For the poet, love is the greatest force.

Fragment

"I love you pure, free

irreducible: you.

I know when I call you

among all people

of the world, only you, will be you.

And when you ask me

who is it that calls you, the one who wants you his, I'll bury the names

the labels, the story.

I will go breaking everything

what they threw at me

since before birth.

And back to the anonymous

eternal of the naked, of the stone, of the world,

I'll tell you:

I love you, it's me ”.

Love reason

Reason for love was published after The Voice to You Due. This work expresses the emotions and feelings that the author experienced after meeting with the loved one, which, at the same time, was the beginning of a farewell that he knew was permanent.

Unrequited love is evidenced in the poems; in this case, the love that the protagonist Jeremías feels for Matilda. The tragedy comes when the lover goes to strange sources to consummate his love and both end up taking their own lives.

Fragment

"Sometimes one does not deny

more than I wanted, it becomes multiple.

It is said no, I will not go

and infinite plots unravel

woven by yeses slowly, the promises that nobody made us are denied

but ourselves, in the ear.

Every brief minute refused

- Were they fifteen, were they thirty? -

It expands in endless numbers, it's been centuries, and a no, not tonight

can deny the eternity of nights, pure eternity.

How difficult to know where it hurts

a no! Innocently

a pure not comes from pure lips;

without stain, or love

to hurt, it goes through the air ”.

The incredible bomb

With The Incredible Bomb Pedro Salinas protested against the causes and consequences of the Cold War and rejected the use of weapons with the population. In addition, it reflected the fear of society in such situations.

Salinas described the environment of the play as a non-existent country on an island, where there was a state that appeared to be kind to its inhabitants but was actually preparing to slap it. A bomb in the museum of peace is what gives rise to the name of the story.

In the story, the incredible bomb begins to blow a kind of bubbles after the blows of a police man who is amazed after the appearance of the device at the scene. With this description the author made an analogy about the drama and pain that citizens suffer from a country at war.

The inhabitants of the country invented by Salinas are forced to leave the nation because the situation becomes untenable. Such bubbles take over the place and life becomes impossible.

Pedro Salinas, a free verse poet

The work of Pedro Salinas suggests a tireless search for love: in that feeling the author found beauty and poetry itself. This is how he summarized it with his statement: "I have always had such a strong desire for love, that is why I have been a poet."

Salinas knew how to unite feelings and intelligence. She managed to make these ingenious conceptions that resulted in a unique poetic work. In addition, he knew how to reach the reader through short verses and in many cases discarding the structuralism of rhyme: this author opted for free poetry.

Pedro Salinas became one of the highest representatives of the Generation of 27. His works, always clean, perfect and sober, earned him the place of great among the greats.

References

1. Pedro Salinas. (2016). Spain: Instituto Cervantes. Recovered from: cervantes.es
2. Pedro Salinas. (2018). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
3. Pedro Salinas: The incredible bomb. (2016). (N / a): Cíbola books. Recovered from: Librosdecibola.wordpress.com
4. Tamaro, E. (2004-2018). Pedro Salinas. (N / a): Biographies and Lives: The Online Encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
5. Pedro Salinas, for pure love. (2018). (N / a): Banner. Recovered from: estandarte.com