Vicente Gaos belonged to the first generation of post--Spanish Civil War poets. Although his collections of poetry were published to critical acclaim, in his later years he often appeared to be forgotten or overlooked in his native Spain. It was ironic, therefore, that he should posthumously win the National Poetry Prize in 1981, with his last collection, Última Thule (Farthest Point, 1980), published shortly after his death. An early demonstration of his contemporaries' high regard for his poetry was the inclusion of some of his work in the Antología consultada de la joven poesía española (Selected Anthology of New Spanish Poetry, 1952), which included poems by the nine best living poets of the postwar period. In 1960 the poet and critic Carlos Bousoño, reviewing the first volume of Gaos's collected poetry (1959), wrote: "No creo que pasen de tres o cuatro los nombres de...