tributes

Since the mid 1950s, young Spanish poets have begun to reclaim Cernuda's work. This esteem resulted in the publication in 1955 of a first tribute organized by the group of poets Cántico: Ricardo Molina, Pablo García Baena and Vicente Nunez, among others.

More important still was the tribute in 1962, in the Valencia periodical La Caña Gris. Coordinated by Jacobo Muñoz, this homage enrolled several of the poets who, over time, would dominate the landscape of post-war Spanish poetry: José Angel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma, and Francisco Brines, among others.

In 1964, Ínsula and the Revista Mexicana de Literatura dedicated monographs to him. These tributes added to the growing interest that critics and scholars such as Carlos-Peregrín Otero, Elisabeth Müller, Philip Silver and Derek Harris showed about Cernuda's poetry in the 60s and 70s. The poet's reputation has been steadily rising ever since.

It is difficult to imagine what Cernuda, largely unknown during his lifetime, would have thought if he had read his continuous posthumous praise. With his misgivings about critics in general, he probably would have preferred to stay a little more outside the official celebrations. When writing, he was not addressing the public at large or the critics, let alone the country's cultural institutions, but the poet of the future. It was in the sensitivity and intelligence of that poet where he eventually hoped to find meaning for his own work.