La Casa De Bernarda Alba example essay topic

Comparison of two poems written by Federico Garc " ia Lorca. BIOGRAPHY Federico Garc " ia Lorca was born into an educated bourgeois family in Fuente Vaqueros, in Andalusia, Spain, in 1898. His mother was a teacher and his father a rich farm labourer. He read literature and music at Granada University and in 1919, at the age of 21, he published his first book, Impresiones y Paisaijes, that was inspired by a trip around Spain that he took as part of his degree. That year, Lorca went to Madrid to continue with his studies. He moved into the Residence of Scholars (de), a liberal institution that taught according to the social, political and religious philosophies of Krause.

Their view of religion gave way to what is called pantheism, which is a perspective Lorca embraced in his work. The importance of the in shaping a generation of writers and poets that became known as the Generation of '27 cannot be underestimated. All the latest innovations in the arts were discussed and debated within the walls of this institution and its students included names as was a had a profound affect on Lorca's generation, where he would meet and make good friends with the famous Spanish poets, Juan Ram " on Jim'e nez (born in Huelva in 1881-1958), Emilio Prados (born in M'al aga in 1899-1962), Rafael Alberti (1902-present) and Jorge Guill " en (1893-1984), as well as the famous Surrealist artist, Salvador Dal'i (born in 1904 in Figueras), to whom he would write an ode in 1926, and Luis Bu~noel (born in 1900 in Tercel), among others. Through his friends at the Residencia he soon got to know a number of other poets with whom he also shared a bond in terms of friendship and ideological leanings and who have since been given many names including that of "La Generac i " on del '27" (The Generation of '27). This group, or generation includes his friends Prados, Alberti and Guill " en, as well as Pedro Salinas, Gerardo Diego, D'ama so Alonso, Vicente Alexandre, Luis Cern uda and Manuel Altolaguirre. Of these, Lorca's poetry has most often been compared with that of Rafael Alberti.

Lorca was a prodigious artist, poet and playwright; his first play, El Malefic io de la Mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell), premiered in 1920 and his first book of poems, Libro de Poemas (Book of Poems), was published the following year, although neither of these initially received the acclaim that his later works would. In November 1921 he wrote Poema del Cant Jon do, which would not be published until a decade later, in 1931. Similarly, his book Canciones (Songs), written that same year, would not be published until 1927 nor would Primer as Canciones (First Songs), written in 1922, be published until 1935. In 1927, along with the publication of Canciones, his play, Mariana Pineda, successfully premiered and he also finished a collection of poems called the Romancero Gitano (The Gypsy Ballads), which earned him critical acclaim when it was published the following year, in 1928. These are generally considered to fall into the category of his early works, but are not considered to be any less valuable than pieces he wrote afterwards, indeed they showed great artistic ability. It is interesting that Lorca initially placed a greater emphasis on his poetry then on his dramaturgy, which would become his defining medium.

Between 1929 and 1930, Lorca lived in New York as a lecturer at Columbia University; the city inspired a new collection of poems called Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York), that is considered by some critics to be a transitional piece of work, and was published in Mexico posthumously. While in America, he also visited Cuba. When he returned to Spain in 1930 Lorca wrote the play La Zapatera Prodigiosa (The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife), as well scenes for two new plays, El P' (The Public) and As'i Que Pase n Cinco A~nos (Once Five Years Pass), thereby initiating a new and more mature phase that, until his death in 1936, placed a greater emphasis on his skills as a playwright. In 1931 Spain was declared a republic for the second time, and as a result of his friendship with the then Ministry de Instruc ci " on P', a man named Fernando de los R'is, Lorca was asked to put a theatre group together for the university, which he called La Barrack. He travelled around Spain with this group, putting on plays by classic Spanish playwrights in towns and cities throughout the country. In 1932 he visited Galicia, a region in Spain that is similar to Ireland in terms of its Celtic tradition and folklore, which inspired Lorca to write his Seis Poemas Gallegos (Six Galician Poems), although critics said of these that he had not been able to capture the essence of Galicia in the same way that he had been able to capture the essence of Andalusia in his Gypsy Ballads.

Between 1933 and 1934 Lorca travelled to Argentina and Uruguay; in 1933 he won wide acclaim for the premiere of two plays, Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) and Amor de don Perlimpl " in con Belisa en su Jar " in (The Love of Don Perlimpl " in and Belisa in the Garden), the latter directed by himself. In 1934, he compounded his success with the tragedy Yerma, which starred Margarita Xirg'u, a famous Spanish actress of the time. That year he also wrote a poem called Llano por Ignacio S'an chez Mej " ias (Lament for the death of a bullfighter), in homage to his friend, the great Spanish bullfighter, S'an chez Mej " ias, who died that year. In March 1935 he directed the unabridged version of his play La Zapatera Prodigiosa and in May he staged some scenes from a farce he entitled El Retablillo de don Cristob " al (In the Frame of Don Cristob " al). In December, he staged Do~na Rosita la Sol tera o el Lengua je de las Flores (Do~na Rosita, The Spinster or Language of Flowers) in Barcelona.

In 1936 he finished his play La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba), which would complete his trilogy of Andalusian folk tragedies; the others being Yerma and Bodas de Sangre). La Casa de Bernarda Alba was premiered posthumously in 1945 and starred Margarita Xirg'u. On the 16th July Lorca went to Granada to spend some time in the country when the Spanish Civil War broke out and Granada was taken by Franco's troops. It was a time of much uncertainty and the nationals, convinced that a counterattack was being organised, began to round up possible left-wing sympathisers in their homes and execute them. Lorca was aware of the political situation and the danger he was in, particularly as many of the assassinations that were taking place were just an excuse to settle personal scores, in addition to which he was a popular poet and playwright with well-known left-wing leanings as well as being homosexual. He decided to stay with two very close personal friends, the poet Luis Rosales and his brother Jos'e.

Jos'e Rosales was leader of the Falange of the Jons in Granada; under his protection they thought Lorca had a good chance of surviving execution. Nevertheless, he was arrested by the Falange and despite repeated intercessions on his behalf by the Rosales family, on the 19th August he was shot dead along with other left-wing sympathisers. His death rocked the nation and horrified his contemporaries. A number of his works were published posthumously, including Div " an de Tamarit (The Tamarit Divan), Seis poem as gal egos (Six Galician Poems) and Sonet os del Amor Osc uro (Sonnets of Dark Love), among others, although some of his work has been censored by his family and many pieces have been lost. SPANISH POLITICS AND SOCIETY Lorca was born in 1898, the year the Spanish refer to as 'The Great Disaster', when Spain lost what remained of her once great empire (Cuba, The Philippines and Puerto Rico) to North America. Spain was in a period of its history known as the Restoration, that would last until the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera, from 1875 until 1923.

From 1875 until 1897, government and politics in Spain was essentially farcical and worked according to a 'system' created by the politician Antonio C'a novas de Castillo, called the Turn Pac'i fico, whereby his party, the Conservative party, would take it in turns to govern the country with the Conservative Liberal party, headed by Pr " axe des Sagata. It was a system that gave the monarch power to decide which party should govern the country and for how long; when it looked like the population was unhappy with a particular party and looked like it could pose a potential threat to the system, rather than allow the people to vote themselves, the monarch would ensure that power was given to the opposition. The decision of the monarch would be enforced by powerful, corrupt men working at local government level, known as Caciques. By 1980 however, critics of the system, particularly from those it excluded, which were the Carlists on the far right and the Republicans on the far left, started to create unrest and the system began to crack; critics blamed it's weakness as a system and the fact that it was based on corruption for the great loss of 1898.

In social terms, Spain at this time was very much dominated by a backward feudal system of land ownership in the central and southern regions of Spain, which meant that the majority of land was owned by a handful of powerful families, while labourers, or as they were called, were paid a daily wage that was barely enough to feed them. The majority of the population in rural Spain were illiterate. The irresponsibility and laziness of landowners meant that new technology was not invested in that would have improved intensive farming methods in these areas, bringing Spain in line with the rest of Europe in terms of industrial development. Instead, they preferred to take advantage of cheap labour to increase production in the short term. The metallurgy industry in the Basque Country, in the north of Spain, along with the Catalan textile industry on the east coast were the exception to general economic backwardness.

The industries in these regions experienced industrial development in line with the rest of Europe, although they were hampered by geographical factors such as un-navigable rivers and mountainous terrain that made good road or rail transport a difficult enterprise, thus the cost of transporting fuels, which were not of a high quality in any case, meant that these industries were not as competitive as their European counterparts. In addition, any profits made in these sectors only benefited a handful of powerful businessmen and investors, while the majority of factory workers were ill paid and illiterate, just as the land labourers were in the rest of the country. Demographic figures show that life in these industrialized cities was so dire that birth rates were low but death rates were high, due to poor living conditions: Demographic figures that prove that industrialisation has taken place tend to show low birth rates in conjunction with a fall in death rates. To sum up, one could say that Spain at the turn of the century was characterised by an inefficient and corrupt political system, a powerful and irresponsible ruling class, social inequalities and backwardness. MODERNISM VERSUS THE GENERATION OF '98 Following the loss of it's empire, those who were already critical of Spain's corrupt political system and irresponsible society, renewed their demand for regeneration. Perhaps the most renown of these social critics were a group of bohemian poets and writers that are known as the Generation of '98, that are often linked to, or confused with, the Modernist movement.

The differences between the two movements, or groups, are discussed in an essay written by Pedro Salinas entitled "El problem a del Modernism en Espa~na o un conflict entre dos esp " iritis" (which could be translated as 'the problem of modernism in Spain, or a conflict between two ethos') (Salinas: 13). In his essay, Salinas argues that both movements came about for the following reasons: " 'on con el estado de la literatur a en a quella 'epoch, a contra las normal est' imper antes, y des eo, m'as o me nos, de un cam bio que no se sab " ia my bien en qu'e hab " ia de consist ir" (Salinas: 13). This similarity generated contact between the two for a brief period in 1898, when the Nicaraguan poet and father of Modernism, Rub " en Dar " io, came to Spain. However, their differences soon proved greater than their similarities and the two groups would diverge, so that the Spanish literary Modernist movement would be characterised by its concern for the aesthetic, the pleasure of the senses and lack of social conscience: "Nunca hab " ian cant ado las pala bras castellana's con ale gr " ia tan, nunc a antes brill aran con tanto's vi sos y como en las esp l'end idas poet " ias de Dar " io" (Salinas: 16).

Salinas even goes so far as to compare Modernism to a narcotic, and the words of Dar " io to the call of a siren, in that their poetry offered escapism to a generation suffering from complex of defeatism and pessimism, rather then urging them to stand and fight against the system. The generation of '98 on the other hand, horrified by the loss of the Spanish empire, which they considered proof of Spain's backwardness, were more political, more critical and more analytical. Their work was also marked by a kind of introspective spirituality; the need to search one's soul in order to find a solution to society's problems. This group of writers included Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936), P'io Baroja (1872-1956), Antonio Machado (1875-1939), Azor " in and Ramiro de Maeztu (1875-1936); all of which would be greatly admired by Lorca's contemporaries. Although appreciative of Dar " io as a master of his art, both the generation of '98 and the generations that followed, were critical of its lack of originality and dismissive of its content. Salinas pointed out that by constantly embracing previous cultural references, or movements such as romanticism, the Modernists succeeded only in imitating them rather than creating something new based on their own experiences: In short, their poetry was ornate, decadent and described that which had already been described before.

THE VANGUARD MOVEMENT IN EUROPE AND SPAIN AND THE NOVECENTISTAS, JUAN RAM " ON JIM " NEZ AND RAM " ON G'OMEZ DE LA SERNA C La Vanguard ia (Officially starts after WWI in 1918) The early twentieth century in Europe was marked by great advances in technology that went hand in hand with great social unrest and political extremism, which was reflected in an era of experimentation in the arts. It sprang from a need for young artists, poets and writers to break violently away from everything that had been done previously; the need to create something new and original, the need to uncover hypocrisy and move towards purity. Different countries produced different movements: Italy would produce Futurism and Fascism; France would produce Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism; Russia would produce Acme ism; England and the US would promote Imagism and, Spain would produce Ultraism and Creationism. The Vanguard or Avant-Garde movement was popularized in Spain by a group of writers, poets and philosophers that were brought up in regeneration ist Spain, that included Juan Ram " on Jim'e nez (1881-1958), Ram " on G'omen de la Serna (1888-1963) and Jos'e Ortega y Gas set (1883-1955). These writers would have a profound effect on Lorca and his contemporaries. Chronologically speaking only ten years separated them from their predecessors, the Generation of '98, and from their successors, the Generation of '27.

In many ways then, they were a transitional group that marked the end of the old (Modernism) and the beginning of the new (The Vanguard). Indeed Juan Ram " on Jim'e nez is a good example of this as his early work was at first very much influenced by Dar " io, however, he later rejected Modernism in favour of an avant-garde style of poetry called 'nude poetry' or 'poet " ia ', in other words, poetry stripped of all ins unnecessary ornate trappings: "! Oh passion de mi vida, poet " ia / Desnuda, m'ia para! Juan Ram " on Jim'e nez THE GENERATION OF 1927 AND THE DEPRESSION OF 1930 GROUP OR GENERATION: THE GREAT DEBATE Comparison of two poems, Romance de la Pena Negra and La Aurora.

Romance de la Pena Negra (Ballad of the Black Sorrow) was written by Lorca on the 30. July 1924 (Catedra: 80). It was one of a collection of poems he entitled the Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads) that, when published, was a huge success, among academics and the general public alike, making this book one of his most well known pieces of work. There are many reasons why the poems received such wide acclaim in terms of Lorca's wider audience: It is clear that the ballad, with its simple, eight-syllable line rhyming structure makes for uncomplicated reading, in addition, the subject matter would have sparked general interest due to the mysterious nature of its gypsy protagonists, who had popularized the flamenco arts at the end of the 19th century, yet inspired a mixture of fear, loathing and admiration in Spain that all Spaniards would have recognised.

The universal content of the poems is another reason for their popularity, they are rich in natural imagery, the moon, the sea and the mountains all appear frequently, as do themes of love, sexuality and death, making the poems easily accessible to all readers on a basic level. Critics and academics were just as appreciative of Lorca's work, in it they were able to recognise his talent for fusion and innovation, for example, he combined the narrative ballad format with the lyrical (Harvard: 32) and harmoniously blended elements from the classics (influences from Greek mythology) (Catedra: 79), the folkloric (the use of gypsy lore), and the most modern scientific thought of Freud and his theories regarding dreams and the subconscious. It is important that Lorca would choose the ballad to create his gypsy myths as they reflect a change in attitude towards the arts that he and his contemporaries were experiencing; from adhering to the elitist vanguard credo of 'art for art's sake', that was only accessible to the educated bourgeoisie, to art that was accessible to the general population, which, in Lorca's time, was largely illiterate. What better way to reach the masses than via the ballad, a form of verse with a rhyming metre that was easy to remember and historically used by those unable to read and write to pass stories on through the generations since the times of the Reconquista. This move towards social responsibility in the arts was intensified after the American economy crashed in 1929 and is much more tangible in the collection of poems Lorca entitled Poeta en Nueva York, which he wrote between 1929 and 1930 when he lived in New York and was able to see the effects of the Great Depression first hand. The Gypsy Ballads have been described as, "una verd a dera's erie de milos " (Catedra: 100) and this is what Lorca hoped to achieve, a collection of mythical stories set in a part real and part imaginary ancient Andalusia, told in ballad-format and using the gypsies as its main characters because it was this race, ancient, timeless and mysterious, that, through songs, dances and traditions passed down through generations, were most able to project the ancient Andalusia that Lorca wanted to portray.

The driving force behind the 'Gypsy Ballads' is the myth of the "duende", a spiritual force that takes possession of the best artists in southern Spain when they perform either 'el to reo', 'el can te jon do' or 'el bail e', "Los grandes artist as del sur de Espana, o flamencos, ya can ten, ya bail en, ya toque n, sa ben que no es possible emotion sin la del duende" (Catedra: 29). Lorca believed that certain families of gypsies had an innate ability, or 'magical power' that enabled them to express this 'spirit', this ability was wisdom: "Una para lo nuevo y, para que resale lo... ". (Catedra: 59). The essence that Lorca believed they captured in their performances was that of historical truth; the sum of an accumulation of traditions and influences that were the result of different cultures invading Andalusia over thousands of years, so that in the can te jon do, for example, one can see. ".. influen cia oriental... felicia, , y grieg a... ". , and the bullfight can be traced as far back as the times when Dionysian cults populated ancient Tartessos and sacrificed bulls and goats to worship their deity, six thousand years BC (Catedra: 27). It has often been pointed out that Lorca felt a particular empathy for the gypsy race as a whole because they were a marginalized people and he, as a homosexual, could sympathise with their plight (Harvard: 2).

Indeed, Lorca's name became so tied to gypsy culture that he complained in a letter to Jorge Guillen about it, .".. ha mi to pico de (... ) No que me " (Catedra: 83). It is important to bear in mind that Lorca came from a bourgeois family and no matter what empathy he may have been able to feel for the gypsy race as a whole, he was not really interested in becoming a champion for their cause nor was it all gypsies with which he identified, it was only those of Andalusian ancestry and those able to transmit the "duende" in their performances. Lorca himself made this distinction: "Los (the ones that he writes about) no son gentes que van por los pueblos y " (Catedra: 91), this is hardly the kind of comment one would expect from a poet that wanted to be seen as the bastion of the gypsy cause.

Having established that Lorca saw the "duende" in certain families of Andalusian gypsies because of their ability to transcend time with their art, taking spectators to Andalusia's mystical, historic past, it could be argued that Lorca hoped to achieve the same end with his ballads. In order to do this it would be necessary to use the same means, thus, all the emotions Lorca believed to be present in bullfighting, for example, were also conveyed in his ballads: With regard to bullfighting, Lorca wrote, "To reo, rit mo de la mathematica mas pur a, to reo, discipline y perfection. En el to do est a me dido hasta la angus tia y la m isma". The presence of death, the fear and anguish and sense of tragedy this evokes are present in and characteristic of Lorca's work, just as they are in a bullfight. And, just as the matador is constrained by the mathematical moves he must make, so Lorca is constrained by the rhythm and mathematics of a ballad (the obligatory eight-syllable line) and so his characters (and mankind) are constrained by stronger forces such as society, love, life, sorrow and death. The same occurs with the can te jon do, which Lorca described as follows: "Todos los poem as del can te jon do son de un magnifico, consult a al are, a la tierra, al mar, a la luna...

". . Therefore, all of these natural elements must also be present in the ballads if they are to evoke the same feeling, or duende, as the can te, and the moon is a clear example of this. The moon appears frequently in Lorca's work, generally as a symbol of death, at the same time Lorca would have been aware that the moon was historically worshipped by ancient civilisations (Catedra: 37), so by making the moon a key element in his work he is able to create the power of the duende that takes the reader back through time to historic bygone days.

Lorca said of the Romancero Gitano; .".. el li bro es un retablo de Andalucia con, cabal los (... ) done ape nas si est a la Andalucia que se ve, per done est a la que no se ve (... ) Donde no hay cort a ni un trade de torero, ni un sombrero plano, ni una pander eta (... ) no hay mas que un solo personage grande y como un cie lo de est io, un solo personage que es la Pena (... ) que no tien e nad a que very con la melancholia ni con la nostalgia ni con affliction o del an imo (... ) pena que es una luc ha de la amoroso con el mister io que la rode a y no pu ede comprender" (Catedra: 106) What is implicit from this quote, then, is that the sorrow that is so tangible in Andalusia, in its songs and traditions, is such that Lorca perceives it as a physical entity and he gives it a human form in the person of Soledad Montoya. From the ballad it is clear that Soledad is a gypsy woman, implying that Lorca sees this big, dark character that is Andalusian pain as a gypsy woman, the two things, for him, being synonymous with each other. Essentially, Romance de la Pena Negra tells the story of Soledad Montoya, a mysterious, and solitary (Soledad in English means loneliness) female figure that descends, alone, from the dark mountains at dawn and is asked by an invisible entity, that we imagine is the poet himself taking an active role in the poem, where she is going and what she is doing. Soledad is defiant in her responses to the voice, however she tells him two things, the first is that she is looking for something (or someone) and the second is how she bemoans the deep sorrow that is consuming her. The poem has all the ingredients that are characteristic of Lorca's work: Firstly, in terms of rhyme, there is assonance ending with the letter 'a' on every other line, starting from the end of the second line of the poem, so after 'aurora', the next rhyming word is 'Montoya', then 'sombre', then 'redonda's', 'horas', 'import a', etc.

Lorca also uses parallelisms and contrasting ideas, for example, in the first two lines, there is a contrast between light and dark, 'aurora' (line 2) and ' (line 3), there is also a contrast between the mountains (line 3) and the sea (line 17). Images are freely associated, which was characteristic of Lorca's work as well as that of his contemporaries, inspired by figures they admired such as Ramon Gomez de la Serna. In the following lines, for example, there is a strange association between the leaves and water that is repeated: "No me el mar / que la pena negro b rota / en las tierra's de / ba jo el rumor de las ho jas" (lines 19-23), and "Por aba jo cant a el rio: /volant e de cie lo y ho jas". In the first four lines, Soledad does not want to be reminded of the sea because it reminds her that it is from beneath the murmur of the leaves lying on the land that the black pain comes from, (this land must be Andalusia because of the reference to the olive trees), the term 'rumor' Lorca uses to refer to the sound of the leaves is one that is also often used to refer to the sound of a running stream. Similarly, in the second extract, the river sings and is crowned by the sea and by leaves, completing the repetition of water, first the sea and then the river with the image of leaves.

As well as repeating an association between images, Lorca often used echo for dramatic effect, thus, in Romance de la Pena Negra Soledad bewails her pain and solitude with the words "! Que pena tan!" (line 24), which is repeated with a slight variation three lines later, "! Que pena tan grande!" (line 27) and then, further along she cries out "! Que pena! Me es toy / de, carne y rope" (line 31). At the end of the poem Lorca once again emphasizes the tragic and irremediable sorrow he feels is embodied in the gypsy race with the cry, "!

Oh pena de los!" (line 43), which is echoed two lines later with the exclamation, "! Oh pena de cause o culto / y remote!" (lines 45-46). Finally, Lorca often used dialogue in his poems and this is nowhere more evident than in Romance de la Pena Negra, which is, for the most part, a conversation that takes place between the poet and Soledad Montoya. We assume that it is Lorca himself that is the off-stage voice (although other interpretations are possible) and it is interesting to see how this 'voice' develops: It speaks to Soledad four times in total, initially as a paternalistic entity that wants to know where Soledad is going at that time of the morning and why she is alone. The second time it speaks it gives Soledad a warning in the form of a metaphor whereby it compares Soledad to a horse that has become untethered, implying that she has escaped from her man-made shackles and so runs the risk of ending up running into the sea and being swallowed by the waves. The third time it speaks it makes an observation, that could be a criticism, about the sorrow Soledad suffers and how waiting for this thing or this person she has been looking for has made her bitter (an old stereotype of a woman who has not found a life-time partner as a bitter old spinster), "L loras zum o de lim on / agri o de es pera y de bo ca".

The fourth and final time the voice speaks it is to give Soledad advice, it tells her to wash herself and let her heart rest in peace, which is ambiguous although the message appears to imply that she purify herself in some way, that she stop fighting and accept her fate. The voice is, then, intrusive, it is paternalistic, it is critical and it is authoritarian, it is a voice that all women recognise, particularly gypsy women and though not physically visible, it is present in every male dominated society and this makes it a menacing voice. Two themes are present in Romance de la Pena Negra that are typical of Lorca's work: The first is a definite feeling, or intuition, that whatever Soledad is looking for she is not going to find, which is made acute by the fact that despite the depth of the sorrow she feels the invisible voice can only advise her to wash herself and try and accept her fate. The second is that of being trapped and the tragedy this evokes. Soledad is trapped as a human, as a woman and as a gypsy, if she tries to break away, the voice warns her she will end up being swallowed by the sea. Her duties, which lie in the bedroom and in the kitchen, are the cause of her sorrow and make her run about her house like a mad woman, ."..

Corr o / mi casa como una loc a, /mis dos por el sue lo, /de la corina a la alcoa", bringing to mind the image of a caged animal. Indeed Soledad is given animal-like qualities on two occasions, in line 6 we are told that she smells of horse and in line 16 the invisible voice likens her to an untethered horse, which would appear to be metaphors associating gypsy waywardness with wild horses, and women with an animals dominated by man and trained to work for him. At the same time, the association of the woman with a horse also brings to mind the classical myth of the centaur, half man and half horse, which has always symbolized the domination of that in man which is wild or animal like, which could be another way of alluding to the tragic message of the poem, that Soledad must learn to control the animal instinct that wants to run free and instead accept her role in society. The Gypsy Ballads constituted, what Lorca would refer to as a 'phase', an important one as it culminated in a piece of work in which, he said, .".. mi ros tro poetic o por ve primer a con prop ia... ". (Catedra: 105).

Nevertheless, he did not want it to become the only topic associated with him, as we saw in from his comments to Guillen. In fact, his next collection of poems, Poeta en Nueva York contains differences in style and in content from the gypsy ballads, making a comparison of the two particularly interesting. It is unsurprising that the content of the two collections should be markedly different; the depressing reality of New York in the years following the Wall Street crash could not have been more different than rural Spain in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It must have been terrifying to come from a very provincial background and a country that was trailing both politically and economically behind the rest of Europe, to New York, one of the most industrialized cities in the world at the time.

Testimony to Lorca's reaction to this change was the following comment made about Poeta en Nueva York, "Lorca [in America] un li bro de poe sia, una vision de la, del mundo en el que to dos a hora". (Catedra: 120). Faced with the harsh conditions of New York after the Wall Street crash Lorca's poetry became more ethical, his became the voice of anguish and social conscience, a tendency that was becoming visible in all the arts. The politicization of his work demanded a change in aesthetics, and he became more convinced by Surrealism, while never actually joining the movement, moving away from the intricate and complicated verses characteristic of the medieval poet and playwright, Luis de Gong ora, that had previously had such a profound influence on his work and that of his contemporaries. Regarding where this new aesthetic was leading, Lorca would write, "Vamos al inst into, vs. amos al, a la inspiration pur a, a la de lo direct. Empiezan a sur gir los, que se entre gan a los latinos ultimo's del alma" (Conferencias: 20).

Finally, in addition to a change in content and in style, what is also present in this collection of poems is a change in estado de an imo, his own personal sense of culture shock and loneliness are tangible in this volume where they were not in his previous work. In La Aurora (Dawn), a poem from Poeta in Nueva York, Lorca paints a horrifying and desolate picture of life in New York, made all the more hopeless as the scene is set at dawn, which literally symbolizes a fresh start and a new day, yet we are faced with the unpleasant contrast of everything that is not fresh; filthy water, a hurricane of black doves and muddy columns. There is a startling similarity between Lorca's personification of the dawn in this poem and Soledad Montoya, the personification of Andalusian pain, in Romance de la Pena Negra. Soledad is a solitary female figure who comes down from the mountain wailing rounded songs, "Yun ques sus p echos, /given redonda's" (lines 7-8), who has come to look for something or someone, though just what is ambiguous, she says, "Ven go a bus car lo que bus co" (line 13). Lorca gives his personification of the dawn very similar characteristics, she makes a solitary dramatic entrance, "La aurora... ". (line 9), she wails and she is also searching or scavenging for something, .".. gime / por las /...

". . The poem 'La Aurora' can be divided into two sections, each of ten lines. The first section focuses on the dawn and sets the scene (just as in Romance de la Pena Negra, the first four lines tell us about Soledad's surroundings), which in this case, is an entirely manmade environment, so our attention is drawn to "column as de cie no" (line 2)", (line 6), and "aristas pardon" (line 8).

Clearly we are no longer in Andalusia, with its mountains, rivers and olive trees, but, instead, in a city, where the height of the buildings, that is implicit in the reference made to 'columns' and 'immense stairs', helps to create the feeling of an oppressive environment. The use of echo, with a slight deviation on the final word, that was evident in the Gypsy Ballads, returns in the first section of La Aurora, so that the opening line, "La aurora de Nueva York tien e" (line 1) is repeated for dramatic effect four lines later, "La aurora de Nueva York gime" (line 5). However, as a whole, the rhyming metre in this poem is chaotic compared to the mathematical precision of the Gypsy Ballads; The second section focuses on the inhabitants of the dirty city that has been described in the previous lines. The people are mentioned for the first time in line 9, where they are described as refusing to receive the dawn with their mouths. There is an element of the surreal and the religious in this image, which one can associate with the Catholic tradition of orally receiving the body of Christ, in the form of the host (la h ostia), during a service. By rejecting the dawn, the implication is that the inhabitants of this city have lost their faith in god, or nature, an idea that is reinforced in line 10 with the words, .".. no hay manana ni esperanza possible".

In terms of the inhabitants of this city, six lines are dedicated to the children abandoned on the streets and the depraved and fruitless future that awaits them, which would appear to lend weight to the idea previously mentioned, that Lorca's generation were developing a political and social conscience. Lorca's imagery in the following lines is another example of surrealism and appears to allude to the Marxist doctrine that the surrealists adhered to, "A ve ces las en / y dev oran nino's". In these lines Lorca uses metaphor to give the coins being thrown at the abandoned children, the quality of furious swarms of wasps that, rather than helping, are actually attacking them. The contrasting images deployed by Lorca in these lines convert the traditional good associated with giving money into a form of torture; the money becomes a weapon and the act of giving money a lesson on morality.

Bibliography

Carr, Raymond: "Spain 1808-1975" (2nd ed.
1982, Oxford University Press / Clarendon Press " Federico Garc " ia Lorca Conferencias I", Alianza Editorial, S.
A., Madrid 1984 Gas, Vicente: "Antilog " ia del Grupo Po " eti co de 1927" Ediciones C'ate dra, S.
A. 1981 Harvard, Robert G: "Federico Garc " ia Lorca Gypsy Ballads - Romancero Gitano", Aris & Phillips - Warminster - England.
Salinas, Pedro: "Literatura Espa~nola Siglo XX" 1970, Alianza Editorial, S.