Having never liked his family's trade, he decided to go to university instead, where he studied law to his father's great disappointment.

In 1904 he won all three prizes awarded by the Jocs Florals in Barcelona, and was proclaimed Mestre en Gai Saber.

Highly influenced by German-language authors such as Nietzsche, Novalis and Goethe, all of whom he translated into Catalan, his poetry went through periods of decadentism and vitalism.

He is best known for his 'theory of the living word', or teoria de la paraula viva, which advocated Nietzschean vitalism and spontaneous or even imperfect writing over colder and over-thought poetry.

In addition to his poetry writing, Maragall published journalism in avant-garde magazines of the time—including L'Avenç, Catalònia and Luz—where he became the leading proponent of Catalan modernisme.