SOURCE: A review of Final, in Modern Language Review, Vol. 87, No. 3, July, 1992, 785-6.

In the following review, Havard points to the significance of Final, Guillén's final volume of poetry, and discusses the theme of old age which runs throughout the volume.

When Final, Guillén's fifth and last volume, was published by Barral in 1981 it contained, to quote the poet, ‘muchísimas erratas’. By February 1983, when he died at the grand age of ninety-one, Guillén had made the necessary corrections and had added nearly thirty new poems for this ‘definitive’ volume, which is edited by the director of the Centro de Creación y Estudios Jorge Guillén in Valladolid. Antonio Piedra's fifty-page introduction, select bibliography, and clutch of photos complement the enlarged text, making a handsome and economical Castalia edition.

Final prompts several questions, such as: how do we respond to the poetry of a...