Editing Luis Cernuda (section)

====Las nubes (1937–1940)====

This collection was written during the Spanish Civil War and amidst all the disruption and uncertainty in Cernuda's life as he went into exile, drifting from Madrid, to London, to Paris, to Cranleigh and finally to Glasgow. It is a book about war and exile and how both of these connect with Spain. It is his most Spanish collection a nd a pivotal collection in his output.<ref name=Villena27>Villena: intro to Las nubes p 27</ref> Meditations about his isolation in foreign countries and about Spain, particularly about his growing feeling that nothing in Spain was going to change for the better and that intolerance, ignorance and superstition were winning the struggle,<ref name=Cernuda642 /> are the major themes. There is a dichotomy in the way he views Spain. On the one hand is Spain the stepmother of whom he is ashamed, stuck in the past, jealous, intolerant, violent and now wrecked by war, as depicted in "Elegía española I". On the other hand is an idealised version of Spain, now destroyed, to which Cernuda feels allegiance. It is a mix of a lost Eden of the south (the Spain of his Andalusian background), a tolerant, creative, great and respected nation and of the most positive and creative aspects of Golden Age Spain. This Spain is depicted in "El ruiseñor sobre la piedra", "Elegía española II" and other poems.<ref name=Villena28-29>Villena: intro to Las nubes p 28-29</ref> Exile is a theme that Cernuda will keep developing for the rest of his poetic career. Physical exile reminds the poet that he is also a spiritual exile in the world, a cursed figure because every poet belongs to a purer realm of experience, as he had already started to write about in ''Invocaciones''.<ref name=Villena29>Villena: intro to Las nubes p 29</ref> "Scherzo para un elfo" and "Gaviotas en el parque" are just two of the explorations of this theme

Stylistically, there is an increased concentration on clarity and simplicity of diction and his control over his means of expression is growing.<ref name=Connell207 />  He often uses combinations of 7 and 11 syllable lines, the basic form of the ''silva'', a very important form for poets of both the [[Spanish Golden Age]] and the [[Generation of '98|Generation of 1898]]. The collections prior to 'Las Nubes' were intimate and abstract. In ''Invocaciones'' he adds symbolic elements but now his poetry takes on greater amplitude with the addition of reflections on culture, mythology, history and his biography. He starts to write dramatic monologues and to work towards a more conversational style of poetry, under the influences of Wordsworth and Browning.<ref name=Villena31-32>Villena: intro to Las nubes p 31-32</ref>

When he left Madrid in February 1938, he took eight new poems with him.<ref name="Cernuda645"/> In London, he wrote six more. He wrote "Lázaro" while [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] and [[Hitler]] were negotiating over Czechoslovakia, and the poem is written in a mood of melancholy calm, trying to express the disenchanted surprise that a dead man might feel on being brought back to life.<ref name="Cernuda646">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 646</ref> Cernuda was feeling a growing sense of detachment and this is one of the first examples of his characteristic use of a ''Doppelgänger'' to express, in this case, his sense of alienation and lifelessness.<ref name="Harris: a study149">Harris: Luis Cernuda a study p 149</ref>

During his stay with the colony of evacuated Basque children at Eaton Hastings, he befriended a boy called Iñaki who had quickly mastered English and showed such promise that Lord Faringdon was prepared to finance his education at a private school - an offer refused by the boy on political grounds, according to the story told by Cernuda to his fellow émigré Rafael Martínez Nadal. Shortly afterwards, the boy fell ill and was taken to the [[Radcliffe Infirmary]]. On March 27, he was close to death. He refused the last sacraments and turned away from the crucifix held out by a priest. He wanted to see Cernuda, however, and asked him to read a poem. He then turned to the wall and died. This was the inspiration for the poem "Niño muerto", written in May 1938.<ref name="Murphy: Pub Poets"/>

A key poem in the collection is "A Larra, con unas violetas (1837-1937)", in which he identifies himself with [[Mariano José de Larra]], the brilliant, satirical journalist of 19thc. Madrid. Larra was a fierce critic of the governments of his day and of the state of Spanish society but was at heart very patriotic. Cernuda sees in Larra a kindred spirit, embittered, misunderstood, isolated and unsuccessful in love.<ref name=Connell207>Connell p 207</ref>