One of 27

Vicente Aleixandre was born in Seville, Spain (26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984).

Aleixandre was a poet who favoured free verse and wrote about the human condition. He was part of the “Generation of 1927”, a group of Spanish surrealist painters and poets.

Having started a career in law, it was only during a period of illness and recovery that he began to commit time to writing poetry. He went on to be recognised as the main Spanish surrealist poet and received a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1977. 

With Lorca and Dalí among the compadres, La Generación del 27 brought together avant-garde artists and writers before the start of the Civil War.

Initially, the group paid tribute to Spanish Baroque poet Luis de Góngora. It was, however, characteristics rather than conformity that ultimately defined the poetry of the group, as we see in this article - The poetry of the Generation of 27 on Actualidad Literatura.

Writing

Can you recall a recent dream that you had?

If not, how about allowing your mind to wander in a few quiet moments of reverie?

What fleeting thoughts, feelings or images come into your head as you daydream?

However nonsensical they seem, see if you can capture a few onto the page in free verse.

We’d love to see what you come up with, if you’d like to share.

Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash