CONTEMPORARY POETRY: HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND AUTHORS - LITERATURE - 2025

The contemporary poetry is that you created in the last decades of history. Some experts place its beginning around 100 years ago, while most put the end of World War II as its starting point, more or less from the year 1950.

What everyone agrees on is that it includes certain influences from the different avant-gardes that marked poetry and art in general since the beginning of the 20th century. Either to get away from these or to collect part of their content and form, the link with these avant-garde movements is widely accepted.

Pablo Neruda, one of the representatives of contemporary poetry

Poetry is a part of literature, with an origin dating back to the use of music and the word to tell stories. It is characterized by using a series of literary resources to give a much more aesthetic treatment to what is narrated.

The meter, the rhythm or the rhyme are part of the elements that give this artistic manifestation a musicality that prose literature lacks.

The avant-gardes mentioned and a good part of the contemporary poets often break the stylistic rules of poetry, this rupture being a fundamental part of their creations.

History of contemporary poetry

Background

Before the so-called contemporary poetry appeared, there were several avant-garde movements that broke with the writing that had been done until then.

This renewal, both in stylistic form and in content, had a great influence on contemporary authors.

Among these currents are Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism, each with its particularities, but united in the search for a new artistic language.

origins

Although there are regional differences, the second half of the 20th century appears as the period in which this poetry begins.

The years after World War II are marked by its tragic consequences, and art also responds to this context.

Thus, poetry in these early years acquires an existential theme, prioritizing a feeling of emptiness and thinking that life is absurd.

As for the authors, many scholars consider that it is the modernist Rubén Darío who acts as the frontier towards contemporary poetry, given the changes that he introduced with respect to what was done in the 19th century.

Likewise, the Chilean Vicente Huidobro is another of the references to indicate the arrival of the contemporary age of this art.

60's

After the 1950s, the theme of contemporary poetry changed with the appearance of new authors and the remoteness of the world conflict.

A part of the authors begins to write a socially committed poetry. Among them, Gabriel Celaya and Blas de Otero stand out.

Meanwhile there is another current that tries to write about the human being, about their concerns and values, but without any kind of relationship with politics.

New and stylistic break

Already in a third stage, close to the new century, a group of writers appears who are called "newest."

These authors are quite close to surrealism and, although their subject matter is very human-centered, the forms are totally disruptive, with the abandonment of the norms that had characterized poetry for centuries.

Main features

In terms of subject matter, contemporary poetry is quite eclectic, since it touches on all possible issues.

Obviously, there are quite a few differences depending on the authors, but usually certain changes that define this literature are marked.

Structure

One of the aspects in which this type of poetry changes is in its stylistic structure. As in the rest of the aspects, the absolute freedom of the artist is imposed.

While traditionally a very rational internal structure was respected, contemporaries are beginning to experiment.

In this way, the times are freely mixed, and it is no longer obligatory to maintain a chronological order of what is related.

Everything is left to the author's imagination, although it is true that this causes the reader greater difficulty in understanding the text.

This freedom does not mean that contemporary poetry does not give importance to form; on the contrary, this apparent lack of coherence is sought to achieve an effect on the reader.

Metrics

Another aspect in which classicism is abandoned is in the metric. Traditional poetry maintained codes that marked the meter of each verse. It was even one of the ways to distinguish between one type of poem and another.

The contemporary abandons all rules in this regard. The verses do not maintain any rigidity in their length, nor the number of syllables.

It is each author who decides how each verse is going to be, losing meaning the old division between, for example, Alexandrians or hendecasyllables, which helped to identify what type of poem the reader was facing.

Rhymes

Exactly the same thing happens with rhymes as with structure and meter. Despite having been one of the distinctive elements of poetry for centuries, contemporary authors no longer feel compelled to appear.

In this way, on many occasions the resulting verses do not have any type of rhyme and, when they do, they do not respect the old rules about them.

Fixation by other formats

Born already at a time when there were several different media and artistic supports, the poets of this current show great interest in these.

There are differences depending on the time, but this is something that they maintain as a common characteristic.

From comics or television to new information technologies, they are part of its themes, or are even used as platforms to create new multimedia works.

Outstanding authors and their works

There are many poets who can be included under the label of contemporaries. To name just a few of them, the following could be highlighted:

Octavio Paz

Mexican and Nobel Prize in Literature.

Outstanding works: Tree inside, Past in clear, Salamander, Sun stone.

Pablo Neruda

Chilean and one of the great Latin American poets in history.

Outstanding works: General song, The captain's verses, Estravagario.

Jorge Luis Borges

Argentinian. One of the most influential among contemporary poets.

Outstanding works: The maker, For the six strings, Praise of the shadow.

Gabriel Zaid

Born in Mexico and with works in all modalities.

Outstanding works: Tracking, Nudist Camp, Deadly Practice.

Damaso alonso

Spanish, author of Hijos de la ira, a culminating work.

Outstanding works: Children of wrath, Dark news, Man and God.

References

1. Rulfo, Griselda. Characteristics of contemporary poetry. Obtained from sociedadvenezolana.ning.com
2. Cervantes Virtual. Contemporary Spanish poetry. Obtained from cervantesvirtual.com
3. Hess, Gary R. Characteristics of contemporary poetry. Retrieved from brightdreamsjournal.com
4. Trainor, Terry. Contemporary Poetry: Back in the Day. Recovered from books.google.es
5. Williamson, Alan Bacher. Introspection and Contemporary Poetry. Recovered from books.google.es
6. Noel-Tod. Jeremy. The meaning of modern poetry. Retrieved from telegraph.co.uk
7. Clark, Kevin. Time, Story, and Lyric in Contemporary Poetry. Retrieved from thegeorgiareview.com