Famous Spanish Poet - Antonio Machado
The Life and Writings of One of Spains Most Loved Poets
Life of Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado, one of the most popular of the Spanish poets was born in Campos de Castilla, Seville in 1875, his family then moved to Madrid when he was only eight. While studying for his Bachillerato the family finances forced him to find work as well. It was during this time that he went to France where he met some fellow writers who influenced his decision to write poetry.
Machado studied literature and French and after his studies he gained a position to teach French in Soria. It was there, in Soria, that he met and fell in love with the young daughter of his landlady, who was only fifteen at the time. Although Machado was 34, they married fairly quickly but after a very short time his wife, Leonor, contracted tuberculosis and died.
Period of Mourning
Stricken with grief and contemplating suicide Machado received his orders to move back south to Baeza in Jaen province, Andalucia, where he taught for seven years. Throughout this period he struggled with his grief and frequently shut himself in classrooms and went for long solitary walks around the old parts of his new home town.
During this time in Baeza he lived with his mother in a rented accommodation and eventually he began to write again. It's said that his best and happiest works were written in the happy, yet short years of his marriage - Campos de Castilla, Fields of Castilla is an acknowledged work of this period.
Some of his early writings, including Solitudes, Galleries and other poems were influenced by the French modernist movement, and his contemporary Frederico Garcia Lorca with whom he’d passed some time.
In 1919 Machado was moved again, this time to Segovia in Castile, this was nearer his brother who was in Madrid. They often met at weekends and began performing plays they’d written themselves. He stayed in Segovia until 1932 when he was transfered to a post in Madrid, which was still his base when the Civil War broke out.
Effects of Civil War
Antonio Machado was, like Lorca another of the victims of Spanish Civil War. He went to Valencia at its beginnings and he supported the Republic. In February, 1939, he crossed the Pyrenees for safety with his mother and her brother, but he became ill during the trip. Shortly after he died in the French town of Collioure.
Antonio Machado’s major publications
Solitudes (1903)
Solitudes, Galleries and other poems (1907)
Fields of Castilla (1912)
Poesías completas (1917)
Nuevas canciones (1924)
Poesías completas (1936, fourth edition)
Juan de Mairena (1936)
