Poem by Federico Lorca

Poetry, like much of modern painting, is an "abstract" art: the meaning is conveyed less by literal renderings than through splashes of color, rhythm, imagery and emotion. The artists of tradition, poets and painters alike, could convey such things through the employment of accepted conventions; the audience knew at once what the meaning of a poem was, since those conventions acted like signposts directing the interpretation. There are fewer generally accepted conventions anymore, and the modern poet utilizing abstractions risks losing the audience. In abstract art, the intended meaning of a poem either communicates directly to the audience - or misses entirely. How to avoid this problem or, at least, work around it? In his poem "Lament for Ignacio S�nchez Mejfas," Federico Garcfa Lorca couches his abstractions in forms of traditional imagery and sound pattern.

It was exactly five in the afternoon.

at five in the afternoon. (2-5) [Poet's emphasis]

Garcfa Lorca divides his poem into four sections and, though each section is stylistically different, this division creates at once a sense of classical symmetry of form. As seen above, he relies upon repetition to inspire another feeling of classical inevitability; "Lament" may have the modern poet's disdain for end-rhyme, but Garcfa Lorca understands the power of repeated sound. In fact, there is an even more "traditional" use of the repeated line "at five

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Category: Literature - P