This paper analyses the main traits of the poetry written during the Civil War in the front of the Republican Spain, clearly differentiated of the “rearguard literature”. Based on the concept of “presence” coined by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, we offer a new perspective over the war poetry, paying attention to a paradigm change in the sign conception, implemented along the precedent years. The war poetry fits in a “presence culture”, which has as special features the body’s centrality, integration of man in nature, and a prophetic definition of the poet. Meanwhile, the rearguard poets kept on searching the ‘deep’ meaning of the war.Durante la guerra civil española, se desarrollaron en la zona republicana dos espacios de producción literaria clar...