Marinero en Tierra - Clasicos del Siglo XX

by Rafael Alberti

From the El Pais Clasicos del Siglo XX collection. Premio Nacional de literatura en 1925, Marinero en Tierra es uno de los hitos fundamentales de la obra de Rafael Alberti. Esta primera poesía del maestro gaditano es leve, grácil, llena de luz y musicalidad, de imágenes y criaturas imaginadas, expresión de la creciente melancolía del muchacho de mar anclado en tierra, y en ella resuenan desde los ecos del Romancero, de Gil Vicente y de Garcilaso, hasta los de Rimbaud, Verlaine y el vanguardismo.

159 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2002

About the author

Rafael Alberti Merello (December 16, 1902 - October 28, 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. Alberti published his first books of poetry towards the end of the 1920s: Marinero en tierra ('Sailor on Dry Land', 1925), La Amante ('The Mistress', 1926) and El alba del alhelí ('The Dawn of the Wallflower', 1927). This early work fell broadly into the Cancionero tradition, though from a markedly avant-garde perspective.

After falling in with the other members of the Generation of '27, Alberti began to show the profound influence of Luis de Góngora on his work, most obviously in Cal y canto ('Quicklime and Plainsong', 1929). It was, however, the introspective surrealism of Sobre los ángeles ('Concerning the Angels', 1929), whose tone was perhaps anticipated by some of the more sombre moments of Cal y canto, that established Alberti as a mature poet. Sobre los ángeles is widely considered to be Alberti's best work.