Creating Worlds: Self-Reflexivity and the Cosmos in Gerardo Diego’s “Poetry of Creation”

Abstract

Between 1918 and 1922 Diego wrote Imogen (Image), Limbo (Limbo), and Manual de espumas (Manual of Sea Foams), three books that reflect the atmosphere of change and exploration existing during the times of their composition. They are part of Diego’s “poetry of creation,” which also includes Fàbula de X y Z (Fable of X and Z; 1926–1929), Poemas adrede (Poems on Purpose; 1926–1943), Biografia incompleta (Incomplete Biography; 1925–1960), and Biografia continuada (Continued Biography; 1971–1972). In contrast with Diego’s more traditional works, his “poetry of creation” reflects the early twentieth-century atmosphere of renewed attention to the relationship between art and reality. As Diego himself declared, modern poetry was to shift the traditional focus from the subjective to the world of things, or in other words: “Not to look for things in us, but for us in things.”¹ In a 1976 interview with Fernando Delgado on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, Diego reiterated his commitment to things, to the point of identifying it as the most fundamental aspect of his poetic credo (“This seems to me to be the fundamental aspect in my poetry” [12]).