Antonio Machado: Biografía y Obra literaria

Antonio Machado The poet Antonio Machado was born in Seville in 1875, into a middle-class family devoted to study and culture. His father was a lawyer and renowned folklorist, and his paternal grandfather became rector of the University of Seville. His brother was Manuel Machado, also a poet, and a companion in his reading, writing, and experiences. Machado's childhood was spent in Seville until he was 8 years old. His poetry is imbued with memories of that time, a deeply rooted theme in his work. "My childhood is filled with memories of a Sevillian patio and a bright orchard where the lemon tree ripens..." At the age of 8, he moved to Madrid, attending the Free Institution of Education, a place that would shape his entire life and intellectual development. There, he was educated by the elite of the progressive intellectual scene, steeped in Krausism. His teachers were Giner de los Ríos, Joaquín Costa, and Cossío, among others. After completing his education at the Free Teaching Institution, Machado continued his studies, struggling to master Latin and Spanish. This was compounded by the death of his father and paternal grandfather, which left the family in poverty. Thus, at the beginning of the century, Machado struggled financially, but was deeply immersed in Madrid's bohemian and cultural scene. He met and befriended many of the authors who would define the century, such as Juan Ramón Jiménez and Rubén Darío. Between 1899 and 1902, Machado lived between Madrid and Paris with his brother Manuel. There, he not only came into contact with both established and emerging artists, but also perfected his French, which led him to pass the French exam in 1907. In 1902, Machado published Soledades, a collection of poems that would be expanded in 1907 with Soledades. Galleries. Other poems. The influences of French Symbolism and the fashionable Modernism of Rubén Darío are clearly evident in it. The work's themes repeatedly return to themes of childhood, the passage of time, death, and the metaphysical search for existential questions. There are also influences from Bécquer's Romanticism and traditional Andalusian lyric poetry, hence the importance of minor art verse in its metrical role. In 1907, Antonio's life took a turn when he took up his teaching position in Soria. There, he settled in the boarding house of Isabel Cuevas and Ceferino Izquierdo, with whose daughter Leonor, only 13 years old, he fell in love. Leonor reciprocated Machado's feelings, and in 1909, they married. The great relationship between Machado and Leonor was cut short by her death in 1912, after contracting tuberculosis months earlier during the couple's stay in France.