Once Riba and his family embarked on the path of exile in France at the end of the Spanish Civil War, they settled first in the castle of Bierville (Boissy-la-Rivière) and there, between March and July 1939, began to be created what were later to become the Elegies.
The work was continued between July 1939 and June 1940 in L'Isle-Adam, then for eight months in Bordeaux and given final shape in Montpellier, where he settled.
[1] Along with Nabí by Josep Carner and Antigone by Salvador Espriu, The Elegies of Bierville constitute one of the great works of modern Catalan literature and the prime postwar pieces marked by the political situation.
This religious dimension, which until then was not present in Riba's poetry, penetrated deeply throughout his thinking, including the conception of literature.
That dimension appeared again in the later poetic works as Savage Heart (Salvatge cor) and Sketch of Three Oratorios (Esbós de tres oratoris).