Mystic, passion and evil of love in the poetry of Blas de Otero

Abstract

This article offers a reading of Blas de Otero’s poetic work that presents passionate love and a desire for transcendence as its main driving forces. The reading focuses on two key moments: the mystical communion between poet and divinity in his Cántico espiritual–an opera prima often overlooked by critics, in spite of its central character–; and his fall into hell, sick with amor hereos (lovesickness) due to divine indifference-an experience poeticized in Ángel fieramente humano and Redoble de conciencia. Later on, the poet embraced we/us as a new link to transcendence, even if religious feelings would always be present in his work.