De 'Muiñeiro de brétemas' a 'Advento': a progresión fulgurante

Abstract

With his first three books, written between 1949 and 1951, Manuel María developed a high-quality poetic work already in his early twenties. Muiñeiro de brétemas symbolizes, on the one hand, the continuity of Galician literature, being the first book published by a young author after the Civil War; and on the other hand, it inaugurates the Escola da Tebra (School of Shadows). Morrendo a cada intre is an even more invaluable book, where powerful writing of surrealist design is combined with existential angst. Rather than following foreign trends, it is a deeply authentic and personal expression in the miserable and oppressive environment of Francoism. And Advento became the culmination of this first period of Manuel María’s poetic work: in line with the existentialist vein of his previous book, the poet achieves a more elegant and smart expression in the service of a more modulated, rich, as well as elegant sentimentality. This makes the author of this paper consider Advento to be one of the most beautiful books of Galician poetry of all time.