Editing Luis Cernuda (section)

===Dámaso Alonso===

In 1948, Cernuda published an open letter to the famous critic Dámaso Alonso in reaction to an article by the latter titled ''Una generación poética (1920-36)''.<ref name=Cernuda2198>Cernuda OCP vol 2 Carta abierta a Dámaso Alonso p 198-200</ref>   He takes exception to two passages:
#Cernuda, at that time very young
#Cernuda was still a boy, almost isolated in Seville, in the year of our excursion to Seville, the same year in which ''Perfil del aire'' appeared in Málaga, which neither represents his mature work....

He points out that he was 25 at this time, so can scarcely be considered "very young" or a "boy".  As for his isolation in Seville, Alonso should recall that he had already had poems published in the ''Revista de Occidente'' and elsewhere.  However, it is noteworthy that in his later essay, ''Historial de un libro'', he used the same expression to depict his sense of confusion at the hostile reviews to his first collection.<ref name=Cernuda629 />  He also criticises Alonso's use of the word "mature".  He points out the essential inconsistency in saying that the poet was young and then expecting maturity in his early work.  He then states that for him the key factor is not whether a poem is mature or not but whether it has artistic merit.  He goes on to say that, even after the passage of time, he still prefers some of his earlier poems to certain poems written later.{{cn|date=October 2022}}

The major complaint he raises is that this critique is just a lazy repetition of the initial critical reaction in 1927.<ref name=Cernuda2198 />  One of his key beliefs is that there are poets who find their audience at once and poets who have to wait for an audience to come to them - he reiterates this in ''Historial de un libro''.<ref name=Cernuda641 />  He is one of the latter.  So when people like Alonso, who rejected his early work and still persist in calling it immature, now say he is a fine poet, he takes that to mean that they are merely picking up on the favourable reactions of people 20 years younger to his recent works - in other words, the audience that has found him - and that they are unable to see the continuities between the earlier and the later work.{{cn|date=October 2022}}


This develops into a key theme of Cernuda's final collection.  In "Malentendu", he shows his unease that his own reputation could be shaped beyond the grave by the perceptions of someone such as Pedro Salinas and his reference to ''El Licenciado Vidriera''.  In "Otra vez, con sentimiento", he shows the same unease on behalf of Lorca.  Alonso had written in the same article (''Una generación poética (1920-36)'') a tribute to Lorca, calling him "my prince".  Cernuda is keen to save his old friend from appropriation by reactionary forces, defending his unconventional lifestyle (homosexuality) and everything else about him that would prevent him from being free to live in Franco's Spain.<ref name="Villena introduction50">Villena intro to Las Nubes etc p 50</ref>