Alonso's literary career can essentially be split into two convenient blocks. As a poet his early work (such as 1921's "Poemas puros; Poemillas de la ciudad" and 1925's "El viento y el verso") is widely considered inferior to that of his fellow poets in the Generation of '27, and he himself acknowledged his limitations by referring to himself as a 'poeta de rachas' or 'part-time poet'. His mature work, however, particularly "Hijos de la ira" ('Children of Wrath', 1944, 2nd ed. 1946), is recognised as fundamental in the literature of the post-Civil War years.