Spaniard Blas de Otero, one of the leading figures of his country’s trend toward social poetry in the 1950s, was born in Bilbao in 1916 and died in Madrid in 1979.
In Cántico espiritual, his first poem published in 1942, one can perceive the same mystic inspiration that characterized the same-named work by St. John of the Cross.
For a later work titled Pido la paz y la palabra, published in 1955 and dedicated to “the vast majority,” Otero adopted a new voice to protest against a time when injustices occur on a daily basis.
The knowledge he gained from his forays into the genre of the Spanish “romancero” (folk ballad) and his study of the great masterworks of the Golden Age made Otero very linguistically adroit.
He could invent clever wordplays by breaking up the structure of traditional verses and make masterful use of hyperbaton and other poetic devices.
Other works by Otero include Expresión y reunión (1969), Verso y prosa (1974), Todos mis sonetos (1977),Poesía con nombres (1977) and Viejo camarada. (1978).
Links:
http://amediavoz.com/otero.htm
