Gerardo Diego's reputation in contemporary Spanish poetry derives from his multifaceted and fertile poetic talent. He was a rebellious poet who embraced the disjointed, avant-garde maxims of ultraísmo (the ultraist movement), the main tenets of which were to admit the modern urban world into lyric poetry and to make the unusual metaphor the cornerstone of the poem, and creacionismo (the creationist movement), which emphasized free imagery as opposed to realism.

Diego belongs to the renowned "Generation of 1927," who incorporated aspects of French symbolism into the "pure poetry" of ultraism and creationism while retaining the traditional metric constructions of Spanish poetry. The generation was inspired by popular traditions and by the great masters of Spanish poetry. The most important poet for this generation was Luis de Góngora (1561-1627). Several young poets paid homage to him during the tercentenary of his death, after which they named...