Federico García Lorca: Themes, Style, and Poetic Stages

Federico García Lorca: Poetic Excellence and Mastery

Federico García Lorca combined a prodigious artistic intuition with a fine sense of music and rhythm. His poetry is marked by elaborate mastery in the art of verse. We can note the influences of Arabic-Andalusian poetry in his work. His striking images and metaphors contributed significantly to the renewal of Spanish poetic language.

Two themes are repeated insistently throughout his career: his frustrated love and the tragic sense of life. Metrically, both new and traditional forms coexist in his verse.

The Three Stages of Lorca's Poetic Career

We can distinguish three major stages in Lorca's poetic development:

Stage 1: Early Works and Lost Innocence

• This stage includes his first two books: Book of Poems (Libro de poemas) and Songs (Canciones).
• These works present the folk tradition, although a personal voice is already evident.
• The issues relate primarily to childhood, lost innocence, and the theme of tragic destiny.

Stage 2: Andalusian Soul and Gypsy Tragedy

• This stage includes Poem of the Deep Song (Poema del cante jondo) and Gypsy Ballads (Romancero gitano).
• In the former, Lorca interprets the Andalusian soul through popular song. The tragic accent is the dominant note, as the poet projects his own anguish onto the themes of Andalusian singing.
• The Gypsy Ballads is Lorca's most famous work. While the meter and themes may suggest a certain popularity, the poetic language employed is highly educated, often presenting significant reading difficulties, especially because of the symbolic elements and unusual metaphors that abound.
• The world of the gypsies is seen in its tragic dimension, doomed to dissatisfaction or death.

Stage 3: Surrealism and Major Elegies

This stage includes:

• Poet in New York (Poeta en Nueva York)
• Divan of the Tamarit (Diván del Tamarit)
• Six Galician Poems (Seis poemas galegos)
• Sonnets of Dark Love (Sonetos del amor oscuro)
• And a great poem: Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías)

Poet in New York: A Cry of Protest

Poet in New York represents a radical shift in Lorca's poetic language, adopting surrealist free verse. It is the result of the traumatic experience marked by his stay in New York and is a cry of protest against the barbarism of modern civilization.

Lorca finds one of the most pathetic examples of instinct subjected to dehumanizing nature in the world of Black Americans, where the poet sees the only glimmer of spirituality in an environment dominated by money and the machine. Anguish, loneliness, pain, and death are the dominant themes, representing an absurd and meaningless world.

Divan of the Tamarit: Softer Surrealism

Divan of the Tamarit, inspired by Arabic-Andalusian poetry, continues the surrealist line but is somewhat softer in tone.

Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías: A Masterpiece

The Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías is an elegy for the bullfighter, poet, and friend who died tragically. It is considered one of his masterpieces. It consists of four parts, each written in a different meter and style, utilizing evocative, startling language with great perfection:

1. The Goring and Death
2. The Spilled Blood
3. Body Present, Soul Absent
4. Absent Soul