Romancero Gitano

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The mind of Federico Garcia Lorca illustrates for us with poetry a surreal display of humanity and inhumanity. Through his collection of poems Romancero gitano, Lorca depicts the daily struggles of gypsy life in southern Spain. From his portrayal of women in poems such as La casada infiel to the violent bloodbaths of rival gypsies who slay each other in battle for little more than an act of jealousy like in Muerte de Antonito el Camborio. Alas, he expertly captures la Guardia Civil as a symbol of ignorance, brute power, and police oppression. In poems like Romance de la Guardia Civil espanola, we witness how the forces of la Guardia Civil attempt to destroy the mythical Andalusian world. Although his poetry presents us with many fascinating …show more content…

We often see images from the Andalusian landscape in his poems or he implements images of the elements like the wind and fire in his works. In other instances, we see cosmic images such as the sun and the stars for example or the presence of metals is often referred to, which can be associated with the gypsy’s and their lifestyle. The repetition of such imagery allows the reader to gain a greater sense of familiarity with the style of the poet. For example, we see many of these images in Lorca’s poem Romance Sonambulo. In a poem where Lorca (1928, 36-40) is describing an intense desire, he sees the colour green in almost everything around him. He refers to almost all the types of images mentioned above in this poem. We get the elements ‘verde viento’ (2), we see the cosmic images ‘Bajo la luna gitana’ (10), we get an insight to Anadulsian landscape ‘La higuera frota su viento’ (15) and we even get images of metals which are associated with gypsy’s and their lifestyle ‘De acero, si puede ser’ (35). These different types of images could be said to be considered as Lorca’s primary images which are presented to us in every one of his poems even if they come to represent different things. In Romance Sonambulo, the majority of Lorca’s images represent desire. However, in other poems, Lorca (1928, 34-35) uses these same images come to represent different situations. In Reyerta we …show more content…

In his article ‘Metonymy, Metaphor and Myth in the Romancero Gitano’ Andrew P. Debicki (1988, 57) acknowledges the importance of Romancero Gitano and ‘its value in bringing about a myth of the gypsy as a fundamental being who struggles against the restrictions of a sedentary world.’ (6-9). Lorca’s use of imagery plays a major role in shaping our perception of such struggles for the gypsy people. La Guardia Civil is perhaps the darkest presence in Romancero Gitano and is the source of most of the Gypsy’s hardship. No poem epitomizes this hardship more so than ‘Romance de la Guardia Civil espanola’. The poem essentially is a violent narration of how dark forces (which are symbolised by la Guardia Civil) tear through a gypsy village at night destroying anyone or anything in their path. However, Lorca does not merely recount this tale. Instead he uses stark and troubling imagery as a substitution for the narrative itself. Using close up perspective, Lorca (1928, 70-75) focuses on things such as ‘Los caballos negros’ (1) or ‘en un aire donde estallan rosas de polvora negra.’ (11-12) By presenting us with the image of the roses of black gunpowder, Lorca seems to be able to describe the horrific experience of hearing gunshots in a beautiful way. It is this talent of presenting images that represent havoc yet, have a sense

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