The first Francisco Brines: Las Brasas and palabras a la oscuridad

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This work deals with the two first books by the Spanish poet Francisco Brines, one of the greatest authors in the second half of the 20th century. These two books are Las brasas (1960) and Palabras a la oscuridad (1966). There will be a slight mention to the poem El Santo Inocente, edited in Madrid (1965) and included later in Materia narrativa inexacta. First, his poetics is studied, starting with the book Las brasas,Adonáis Prize in 1959, a title that reveals Francisco Brines’ elegiac sense of the poetry since it alludes to the embers of a more intense fire, which is life itself; and from the very beginning, an awareness of the wear produced by the passing of the time becomes relevant.The second part deals with the critical reading by Francisco Brines on Luis Cernuda’s poetry carried out in «Ante unas poesías completas», published in La Caña Gris (1962), where many affinities with the Sevillian poet of the 27 Generation are revealed. The third part focuses on a long-size book of poems, Palabras a la oscuridad (1966), Prize of Spanish Criticism (1967). No other book written by Brines includes more love poems. At the same time, travels and cultural references appear constantly. With this book, a poetic voice which will hardly experiment important variations in the next books, until La última costa (1996), is affirmed.
KEY WORDS: Francisco Brines; Luis Cernuda; poetry of experience; vitalism; elegy.