Time and Landscape in Campos de Castilla

Abstract

Time is a constant theme in Machado’s work that has not been studied in depth by the critics. Therefore, the aim of this article is willing to explore the poetical resources that give evidence of such a potentiality in Campos de Castilla. Among all of them, the unity of time and landscape seems to be the perfect channel to transmit both transience and immanence of time. On the one side, by describing the elements of the landscape (trees, flowers, etc.), the author is able to show how ephemeral time is. In order to give evidence of this statement, the article offers an analysis of the different types of trees that can be found in Campos de Castilla’s poems and their connection with temporality. On the other side, by observing bleak uplands, the author is capable of immortalizing the scene. To do so, Machado uses sayales and estameñas (coarse woolen cloths), yet an unadvertised resource not pointed out by the critics. Such a poetical resource gives to Machado’s landscapes both spatiality (by comparing what he contemplates with never-ending cloths) and temporality (by these cloths carrying the History of Spain).