The Garcia Lorca Poems - Complete List and Fascinating FactsHe was an artist, playwright, lecturer and musician
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Even this week Lorca was featured in the news regarding his remains being exhumed.
Born on the 5 June in 1898, Lorca became an artist, playwright, lecturer and musician, but the Garcia Lorca poems, written throughout his days are the one thing that catches so strongly at my emotions.
It is thought that Lorca got his love of poetry from his mother, Vicenta Lorca. But Lorca always claimed that he got his passion from his father, Federico García Rodríguez. What a combination!
He attended the University of Granada, became an active member of the Generation of 1927, and in 1919, he went to the Residencia de Estudiantes (student's residence) in Madrid to extend his studies.
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The many faces of Lorca
In fact, it was in Madrid that he met and became passionately involved with Salvador Dali, the painter. This attachment was to last until 1929.
List of Garcia Lorca Poems
- Impresiones y Paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes) published 1918.
- Libro de poemas (book of poems) was published in 1921.
- Oda a Salvador Dalí (Ode to Salvador Dalí) 1926.
- Canciones (Songs) published 1927. Here, he mixes traditional poetry and the Andalucian ballad with syntax and metaphor (without any of the normal connecting words).
- Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads) 1928. This work helped make Lorca the most popular Spanish poet of his generation.
- Poema del Cante Jondo (Poem of Deep Song) published 1931.
- Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter) 1935. Describes Lorca's sadness at the death of his bullfighter friend.
- Seis poemas Gallegos (Six Galician Poems) 1935.
- Sonetos del Amor Oscuro (Sonnets of Dark Love) 1936. This collection was only partially published because of the homosexual themes.
- Primeras Canciones (First Songs) 1936.
- Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York) written in 1928 but published posthumously in 1940. Penned during Lorca's time in New York, this collection earned him his international reputation. In it, the gypsy's character depicts the sexual instincts of man which are not held in check by morals and cultural influences. These instincts lead to sex, homosexuality and incest. The poems also depict the loneliness Lorca was feeling while in New York, and his battles with his own homosexuality
- Diván del Tamarit (The Divan of Tamarit) published posthumously 1941. This depicts his own suffering of lost love.
From then on, Lorca mostly devoted his time to drama, including Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding) and Yerma.
However, traditional lovers of poetry aren't the only ones to admire Garcia Lorca poems. Many of his poems have been turned into song...
From Garcia to Pop Music
- The Pogues' Lorca's Novena, and
- The Clash in Spanish Bombs.
However, my favourite song inspired by Garcia Lorca poems has to be Take this Waltz which Leonard Cohen translated and adapted from "Pequeño vals Vienés" (Little Viennese Waltz). In fact, Cohen was so influenced by the works of Frederico García Lorca that he named his daughter Lorca in homage to him.
You can see how Garcia's Spanish poetry and Cohen's English song work together by comparing Lorca and Cohen's lyrics side by side.
Cohen says it took him about 150 hours to rework Garcia's words into the song and he was very anxious that he should translate the words well. However, it was a "great source of pleasure" to him when he got a letter from Lorca's sister congratulating Cohen on his work.
The End of the Beginning
He was taken into custody by the Nationalists, eventually being marched out and shot on August 19th 1936. Lorca's body was thrown into an unmarked grave situated between Víznar and Alfacar, near Granada... He was just 38 years old.
The poem which, for me, helps give the feeling of Lorca's inner turmoil is the Barren Orange Tree.
Song of the Barren Orange Tree
Woodcutter,cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself fruitless.
Why was I born among mirrors?
The daylight revolves around me
and the night copies me
in all its constellations.
I want to live without seeing myself.
I shall dream that husks
and insects are my birds
and my foliage.
Woodcutter,
cut my shadow from me.
Free me from the torment
of seeing myself fruitless.
And thus came to pass the forecast that Lorca had made about his own death when he said,
"Then I realised I had been murdered. They looked for me in cafés, cemeteries and churches .... but they did not find me. They never found me? No. They never found me."
Franco's regime brought in a ban on all García Lorca poems and other works. This ban was to last until 1953.
For me, I love reading Garcia Lorca poems. And one such excellent read is The Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition (Revised)
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The legacy of Garcia Lorca poems lives on in true testament to the man I call a genius.
Lorca is dead.
Long live Lorca!
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