Vicente Gaos
Vicente Gaos was a Spanish poet born on March 21, 1919, in Valencia. Raised in a middle-class, intellectual family with Republican ideals, Gaos began writing poetry during the Spanish Civil War, despite the turmoil affecting his family. In 1940, he moved to Madrid to study at the University of Madrid, where he published his first book, *Arcángel de mi noche: Sonnets apasionados*, in 1944, which won the Adonais Poetry Prize. His poetry often explores themes of transcendence, the complexities of faith, and existential dilemmas, blending love and despair.
After leaving Spain in 1946, Gaos spent several years in France, Mexico, and the United States, where he continued to write and contribute to literary magazines. He returned to Spain in 1955, producing a distinct body of work that featured free verse and a more reflective tone, exemplified in his collection *Profecía del recuerdo*. Gaos received several accolades throughout his career, including the Agora Prize and the National Poetry Prize for his posthumous work, *Última Thule*. He passed away in 1980, leaving a rich literary legacy marked by profound philosophical inquiry and emotional depth.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Vicente Gaos
- Born: March 21, 1919
- Birthplace: Valencia, Spain
- Died: October 17, 1980
- Place of death: Valencia, Spain
Biography
One of a family of children who achieved great intellectual and artistic renown, Vicente Gaos was born on March 21, 1919 in Valencia, Spain. He was brought up in a cultivated, middle-class environment, and he began his writing career when he was a high school student in Valencia, where he wrote for the student newspaper. His family’s Republican sympathies during the Spanish civil war caused several of his relatives to flee into exile and others, like his brother Angel, were imprisoned, but Gaos remained in Spain, and he wrote his first poems during the war. Gaos moved to Madrid in 1940, where he attended the University of Madrid, receiving his licentiate in classics in 1943. In late 1941 or early 1942, under the influence of his friend, the poet and literary critic Damaso Alonso, Gaos gave a reading of sonnets that were later published in his first book, Arcángel de mi noche: Sonnets apasionados (1944). This work was recognized as a joint winner of the first Adonais Poetry Prize in 1943. The poems included in the work range from neoromantic love poems to conflict-riddled dialogues with God. These poems, like others that followed, reveal the primary themes of Gaos’s works: the search for transcendence, his difficult relationship with God, and philosophical dichotomies such as faith and despair, light and dark, life/love and death, and other profound human dilemmas. Although death appears frequently throughout his works, the poet’s belief in the power of love to provide momentary happiness is always present.
The years 1946 and 1947 marked a personal and professional departure for Gaos; he left Spain, traveling to France to study in Paris, where he had been awarded a scholarship, then to Mexico, and then to the United States. During his eight-year absence from Spain, no new books of his poetry were published, although he continued to write poetry and to contribute to American literary magazines while he traveled. In 1949, while teaching in the United States, he completed his doctorate at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico. He continued teaching in the United States, taking a position at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and later teaching at Fordham University. During this time he also wrote some pieces of literary criticism, and by the time he returned to Spain in 1955, he was, by all accounts, a changed man. Still, he continued teaching and writing poetry, living a private, provincial life and avoiding the literary circles of Madrid. In the introduction to his first work published after his return to Spain Profecía del recuerdo (1956) Gaos acknowledges that this work is different, and critics agree. These poems are composed in free verse that uses a natural rhythm of speech, unlike the crafted earlier sonnets. In addition, the poet’s mood is more meditative, although the same haunting existential themes persist. In 1963, a series of ten poems written by Gaos were awarded the first and only Agora Prize. Gaos died of a heart attack in 1980, and his final volume of poetry, Última Thule, was published soon after his death. This work received the National Poetry Prize and the Antonio Gonzalez de Lama Prize.