2 feb 2006

I can't get myself to choose Vallejo over Neruda, even though I wouldn't disagree with that choice. Neruda made some political and poetical missteps--Vallejo died young and was spared the fate of a long decline. Have they ever made a movie out of Vallejo's life?

I still prefer Residencia en la tierra to almost anything else in modern Spanish-language poetry.

Veinte poemas de amor is probably the most popular book of poetry in Latin America.

Both Vallejo and Neruda make Huidobro look a little superficial. Vallejo makes Neruda look too facile, too prolific. Yet the best pages of Neruda...

3 comentarios:

RC dijo...

I read Vallejo and Neruda in Spanish.Without relying on translations my favorite has to be Vallejo.

Ernesto dijo...

My favorite is Huidobro, though. Veinte poemas de amor (and la Canción desesperada is, indeed, the most popular poetry book in these latitudes because it is, to say it kindly, "facile". Residencia is way better (more complex, less corny, more "intellectual") and therefore less well-known.

Among poetry circles over here Neruda is a no-no. It took me a while to actually accept I liked some of his poems.

Jonathan dijo...

I can't take Huidobro. I always thought his vanguardism was too generic and formulaic. Maybe it was the fault of the professor with whom I read him first.