The Fierce Reverie of the Word in Action: Twenty Years of Argentine Poetry (1940-1960) by Francisco Urondo

Abstract

In december 1963, Francisco Urondo publishes in the magazine Zona de la poesía americana a short essay entitled “Argentine Poetry in the recent years”. As a note, he indicates to the readers that this work comes from a “fragment of a book of Old and New Vanguards. Notes on argentine avant-garde poets and movements” (Nº 2, 14). Nevertheless, five years later, when the publishing house Galerna publishes the complete essay, its title becomes Twenty years of argentine poetry 940-1960. Not only avoids the notion of Vanguard, but also produces a singular condensation. The national poets and movements come together in an unique entity, general and national: argentine poetry. Far more suggestive, the attractive of this title is due not only to the fact that it outlines the history of the Argentinian poetry in a singular period, but also to the phrase “twenty years”, that invites us to think this history in the terms of accumulation. What is it that has been treasured during this cicle? Which is the state of argentine poetry in 1968? What is it that makes this poetry argenine? It is impossible to answer this questions without exploring the way in wich Urondo introduces, in this essay, certain premises that function as lures so that the reader stops and beholds the future of an agitated tradition.