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Federico Garcia Lorca [1898-1936] SPA
Ranked #50 in the top 380 poets
Votes 79%: 763 up, 200 down

Much of García Lorca’s work was infused with popular themes such as Flamenco and Gypsy culture.

In Madrid he joined a group of avant-garde artists that included Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel. The group, collectively known as the “Generation of ’27,” introduced Lorca to Surrealism, a movement that would greatly influence his writing. 

Spanish poet and dramatist, Lorca was a talented artist and a member of the `Generation of 1927`, a group of writers who advocated avant-gardism in literature. 

García Lorca read law at the University of Granada. At the same time he studied music collaborating in the 1920s with Manuel de Falla, becoming an expert pianist and guitar player. In Madrid he entered the Residence de Estudiantes, a modern college and the intellectual center of the town. During this period his friends included the writers Juan Ramón Jiménez. and Pablo Neruda. He also worked with Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel in different productions. When the two made their notorious short film Un Chien Andalou (1928), García Lorca was offended: 

he thought that the film was about him. 

Through recitals of his poetry García Lorca became known even before the publication of his first collection. As a writer García Lorca made his debut with `Libro De Poemas` (1921), a collection of fablelike poems. In 1923 García Lorca earned a degree in law, but the turning point in his literary career was folk music festival Fiesta de Cante Jondo in 1922, where he found inspiration for his work from the traditions of folk and gypsy music.

In 1927 García Lorca gained fame with his romantic historical play arina Pineda where the scenery was constructed by Salavador Dali and the distinguished actress Margarita Xirgu played the heroine. By 1928, with the publication of RIMER ROMANCERO GITANO he was the best-known of all Spanish poets, and leading member of the `Generation of 27`, which included Luis Cernuda, Jorge Guillen, Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti and others. 

In 1929-30 García Lorca lived in the city of New York, on the campus of Columbia University. Unable to speak English he suffered a deep culture shock. His suicidal mood was recorded in posthumously published OETA EN NUEVA YORK(1940, Poet in New York), in which he praised Walt Whitman. The poet condemns the frightening, physically and spiritually corrupted city, and escapes to Havana to experience the harmony of a more primitive life. 

After a short visit to Cuba, García Lorca was back in Spain by 1931, and continued with theatre productions. He became the head the traveling theatrical company, La Barraca, which brought classical plays and other dramas to the provinces. After the death of his friend, a bullfighter, García Lorca wrote ament for the Death of a Bullfighter(1935), which has been regarded by most critics as his greatest poem. The work is divided into four sections, whose individual motifs are weaved together. The figure of one man facing death in the bullring, exemplified by his friend Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, expressed the author`s tragic sense of death. Mejías himself had written a play and he was well-known in the literary circles.  

García Lorca`s central themes in his works are love, pride, passion and violent death, which also marked his own life. The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 and García Lorca was seen by the right-wing forces as an enemy. The author hid from the soldiers but he was soon found, dragged from a friend`s house, and shot in Granada on August 19/20 of 1936 without trial by the Nationalists. The circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery. He was buried in a grave that he had been forced to dig for himself.

Freemasons, Haiku, Homoerotism, Modernism, National, Surrealism

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
1902-1963
TUR
Nazim Hikmet
→ compared Federico Garcia Lorca
1930-1998
ENG
Ted Hughes
→ translated Federico Garcia Lorca
1875-1939
SPA
Antonio Machado
← influenced by Federico Garcia Lorca
1904-1973
CHL
Pablo Neruda
← influenced by Federico Garcia Lorca
1926-1997
USA
Allen Ginsberg
← influenced by Federico Garcia Lorca


WorkLangRating
The Guitar
eng
32
Romance De La Luna, Luna
spa
22
Before The Dawn
eng
9
Gacela Of The Dark Death
eng
9
The Gypsy And The Wind
eng
9
La Guitarra
eng
8
Cantos Nuevos -- With Translation
eng
6
City That Does Not Sleep
eng
6
Lament For Ignacio Sanchez Mejias
eng
6
The Faithless Wife
eng
6
Ballad of the Moon, Moon
eng
5
Ditty of First Desire
eng
5
Sonnet Of The Sweet Complaint
eng
5
La Casada Infiel
spa
3
The Song of the Barren Orange Tree
eng
3
Debussy [with English translation]
eng
2
If My Hands Could Defoliate translated from Si Mis Manos Pudieran Deshojar
eng
2
Seranata
eng
2
Si Mis Manos Pudieran Deshojar -- With English Translation
eng
2
Adam
eng
1
Arbolé, Arbolé . . .
eng
1
Farewell
eng
1
Weeping
eng
1
Adivinanza De La Guitarra
spa
0
Balada Amarilla IV
spa
0
Dawn
eng
0
Declaring
eng
0
El Balcón
spa
0
Gacela of the Dead Child
eng
0
Gacela of Unforseen Love
eng
0
Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude
eng
0
Las Seis Cuerdas
spa
0
Little Viennese Waltz
eng
0
Muerte De Antoñito El Camborio
spa
0
Murió Al Amanecer
spa
0
Nocturnos De La Ventana
spa
0
Ode to Salvador Dali
eng
0
Ode to Walt Whitman
eng
0
Paisaje
spa
0
Peaceful Waters:Variation
eng
0
Piccolo Valzer Viennese
eng
0
Preciosa Y El Aire
spa
0
Romance Sonámbulo
eng
0
Saturday Paseo: Adelina
eng
0
Soneto
spa
0
Sonnet
eng
0
The Little Mute Boy
eng
0

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