While writing his poetry (some eight hundred poems in all), Dionisio Ridruejo led a life of crisis, surrounded by and involved in the turmoil of war, exile, court trials, and imprisonment. His life, like his poetry, reflects the reversals and contradictions characteristic of the man who at a very early age had attained positions of importance within the Falangist party only to suffer confinement and banishment after his break with the Francisco Franco regime. The traditional spirit that politically motivated the young Ridruejo led him initially to produce verses based on popular poetry or in keeping with the poetic expression of Garcilaso de la Vega. After Ridruejo's disillusionment over the failure of ideals espoused during the Spanish Civil War, the thematic content of his poetry changed, coming finally to express a spiritual turning point in the face of solitude, time's passing, and growing maturity. His extensive poetic output...