Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This review is taken from PN Review 43, Volume 11 Number 5, May - June 1985.

Bill AffleckSPUTNIKS AND SONNETS Keith Ellis, Cuba's Nicolás Guillén: Poetry and Ideology (University of Toronto Press) £23.25

Nicolás Guillén, one of the most distinguished twentieth-century poets in Spanish, was born in Cuba of mulatto parents in 1902. His early volumes Motivos de Son (1930) and Sóngoro Cosongo (1931) were remarkable for poems based on the popular musical form, the 'son', special rhythmic effects being achieved by a sort of patois of truncated words, to match the popular speech and song rhythms of the day. His early work reflected an increasing awareness of the plight of the worker on the plantation or in the plush bars of Havana. For about two decades from the mid-1930s, Guillén toured many of the countries of Latin America, giving lectures and poetry readings. In 1959, a few weeks after Castro's army forced Batista to flee, Guillén returned to Cuba: the photograph on the back cover of the book showing the poet being welcomed by Castro illustrates how glad the new régime must have been to have had the support of such a respected compatriot.

Few translations and little criticism of Guillén's work have yet appeared in Britain, and his poetry is not readily available in bookshops. There is a need for a comprehensive study which, in addition to describing his qualities as a poet, might show the place he holds among poets from Spain and Latin America. Echoes of and affinities with Machado, Lorca and Neruda can be found, on technical and thematic levels, in many of his works.

Keith Ellis's book - all 232 pages of ...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image