Poetry
Concerning the Angels
Sobre los ángeles
Rafael Alberti · 1929
Synopsis
Poems written during a crisis that the author himself described: he felt emptied, and he says he then saw angels come who were not those of pious images but forces of the spirit, matching his darkest states, cruelty, desolation, terror, and sometimes kindness. The first part speaks of lost love, in short lines; the central part, of a childhood faith experienced as a betrayal; the last moves to long lines laden with images close to dreams, memories of school included.
Context
Begun before the end of the tribute paid to Góngora in 1927, and written in 1927 and 1928, the collection appears in 1929. It breaks with the author's earlier books, made of songs in popular form or of pieces in the Gongorine manner, and comes close to surrealism through its dream images and its move to free verse. This crisis has been linked to an unhappy love affair, to memories of the Jesuit school and to the money troubles of a man who still lived with his family. Bernard Sesé translated it into French in 1976, John Murillo into English in 2025.
Who it is for
Dark poems, at first brief and regular, then in long lines of tightly packed images, which call for slow reading.
Prizes and reception
Generally regarded as its author's masterpiece, it marks a change of direction for him and for his whole group.