Platero and I / Selected Poems

Platero and I remains Juan Ramón Jiménez’s most beloved and widely read work, a lyrical prose poem recounting the wanderings of a poet and his silver donkey through the Andalusian countryside that achieves a rare synthesis of simplicity and profundity. Jiménez’s pursuit of ‘pure poetry’ shaped the Generation of ’27, influencing such major figures as Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti. His luminous contributions to Spanish poetry were recognized with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.

Jimenez composed his finest work during the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War, a period of notable literary ferment in Spain. After Francisco Franco's victory, Jimenez was forced into exile, joining the vast diaspora of Spanish intellectuals and artists who carried their country's cultural heritage into the wider world.