On March 28, 1939, Nationalist forces entered and occupied Madrid, the capital of Spain, after a siege that had lasted over two years. The fall of Madrid marked the effective end of the Spanish Civil War, as the last Republican stronghold fell to Franco's forces. The occupation was followed by mass arrests, executions, and imprisonment of Republican supporters, as Franco's regime began its long campaign of political repression.

The fall of Madrid was the final blow to Republican poetry, as the city that had inspired so many verses of resistance fell to the Nationalists. The poetry of the fall of Madrid was marked by despair and defeat, with writers chronicling the end of their dreams. The fall also marked the beginning of the long silence of Francoist censorship, which would suppress Republican poetry for decades.