Vicenente Aleixandre

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Vicente Aleixandre
Spainish Poet

Aleixandre is one of the most successful Spanish poets to both survive the Civil War and

remain in Spain afterwards. A large part of this is due to the fact that his poems were non-

political in nature. Aleixandre had a long-suffering struggle with tubercular nephritis,

which kept him bed-ridden in a mountain retreat for much of the war. Aleixandre's

significant contributions to modern poetry were recognized with the receipt of the Nobel

Prize for Literature in 1977, He was 79 years old!

Vicente Aleixandre was born in Seville, in 1898. He led a happy childhood. His father was

an engineer, and the family was very close-knit. In fact, following their parents deaths, His

moms in 1934 and his father in1940, both Vicente and his sister, Conchita, continued to

live together in their parent's house. The family moved to Málaga in 1902, and this scenic,

coastal village proved to be a strong inspiration to Aleixandre's early poetry. He often

evoked images of the sea and sun. However, he was late in developing as a poet. In

college, Aleixandre studied business law and became a University law teacher in Madrid

when he was only 22 years old. It was not until a close friend and poet, Dámaso Alonso,

gave him a book of poetry by Rubén Darío, that he began writing in secret. Aleixandre did

not devote himself to his hidden passion, until his illness forced him to leave his job at the

age of 27.

His early publications were well regarded and Vicente Aleixandre was rewarded Spain's

National Prize for Literature in 1933 for his first four publications: Ámbito in english it is

Ambit in Swords like lips in 1928, Espadas como labios which in english is Swords like

lips in, 1932, Pasíon de la Tierra which is Passion for the Earth in 1935 and La

Destrucción o el amor which is Destruction of Love, in 1935. However, it is with

Aleixan...