El Soldado Desconocido (1922) By Salomon De La Selva; The Great War, “As Seen And Experienced” By A Central American Poet

Abstract

This paper analyzes the vision of the Great War that the book of poems, The Unknown Soldier (1922), by Salomon de la Selva expresses. Considering that the author gives importance to the experience as poetic inspiration, I present some information about the author’s experience as soldier in the trenches. The analysis of the poems delimits the testimonial aspect of poetic artifice; I attempt to show that, parallel to the chronological narrative of events of war, can be identified a “second argument”, which involves the gradual transformation that occurs in the consciousness of the lyrical subject as it takes the personality of the soldier.