description: Acclaimed by Pablo Neruda as "a great plebeian, a poet of the people, crystal clear yet full of wisdom," Nicolás Guillén has long been recognized as one of the foremost poets of contemporary Latin America. The pre-eminent exponent of a black poetry in the Spanish-speaking world, he has been of seminal importance in creating a specifically Cuban cultural identity, which has earned him the designation: national poet of Cuba.Apart from a collection made in 1948, Guillén's work has been unavailable in English until now. This collection, which includes all of El gran zoo and thirty-four additional poems, offers a panoramic view of a poetry covering over thirty years, a career rich in human insights and lyric beauty, in which we see the poet moving progressively beyond the limited Cuban context to embrace the Caribbean and Latin America, and finally the idea of a Third World of the oppressed.
language: English
title: The Great Zoo and Other Poems
titlecomplete: The Great Zoo and Other Poems (English and Spanish Edition)
genres: Poetry
ratings_count: 10
publisher: Monthly Review Press