The Guitar by Federico García Lorca
"The Guitar" by Federico García Lorca is a poignant poem that captures the emotional depth and auditory essence of flamenco music through rich imagery and metaphor. Central to the poem is the guitar, which is portrayed as a lamenting figure, echoing the sorrowful themes often associated with cante jondo, a traditional form of deep, expressive flamenco singing. The poem opens with the evocative line "The lament of the guitar begins," suggesting the instrument's sorrowful voice and its intrinsic connection to feelings of loss and longing.
Lorca employs repetition to highlight the relentless nature of the guitar's wail, emphasizing its ability to resonate deeply within the human experience. The guitar's sound is likened to mournful elements of nature, such as the wind and rain, enhancing its melancholic atmosphere. Through metaphors, Lorca explores themes of disorientation and loss, such as "arrows without target" and "the first dead bird upon the branch," which evoke a sense of grief and the passage of time.
Furthermore, the guitar itself is transformed into a symbol of woundedness, with the lines "Oh, guitar!/ Heart grievously wounded/ by five swords" suggesting both the physical act of playing and a deeper emotional resonance. This imagery connects the instrument to the profound sorrow of human existence, reflecting the intertwining of music, culture, and the experiences of life in Andalusia.
The Guitar by Federico García Lorca
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: “La guitarra,” 1931 (collected in Poem of the Gypsy Seguidilla, 1967)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“The Guitar” typifies García Lorca’s purpose in the cante jondo: to approximate in print something of the auditory experience in hearing the music. Two characteristics are notable. The sound of the guitar is like a wail (llanto), the same word that refers to the flamenco singing. “The lament of the guitar begins” is the opening line of the poem, and it is repeated two lines later. The guitar’s lament is monotonous and repetitious (like the wind and the rain), and García Lorca achieves this effect through further repetition. Three times he writes the phrase, “It is impossible to silence it.” Meanwhile, the strength of the guitar’s sound is sufficient to break the wine cups of dawn. Flamenco players sing and dance all night, and their revelry persists until daybreak.
For what does the guitar wail? Why is its sound so heartbreaking and haunting? In a series of brilliant metaphors, García Lorca supplies some answers, summarized in the simple lines, “It weeps for/ things far away.” “Sand of the warm south/ asking for white camellias” associates the guitar with Andalusia, situated on the Mediterranean Sea with its beaches and flowers. “It weeps arrow without target/ evening without morning.” Arrows without targets and evenings without mornings are metaphors of disorientation. Another cause for its grief is “The first dead bird/ upon the branch,” a reference to the loss of innocence, a theme that appears often in García Lorca’s verse.
Finally, this instrument that evokes so many poignant feelings itself becomes a metaphor: “Oh, guitar!/ Heart grievously wounded/ by five swords.” It is a splendid example of a García Lorca metaphor. The body of a guitar roughly approximates the shape of a heart, which is wounded by the five fingers of the person playing it. The image also evokes the common household religious print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded by the grief of the world.
Bibliography
Bonaddio, Federico, ed. A Companion to Federico García Lorca. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell & Brewer, 2007.
Cobb, Carl. Federico García Lorca. Boston: Twayne, 1967.
Craige, Betty Jean. Lorca’s “Poet in New York”: The Fall into Consciousness. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977.
Edwards, Gwynne. Lorca: Living in the Theatre. London: Peter Owen, 2003.
Gibson, Ian. Federico García Lorca: A Life. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
Honig, Edwin. García Lorca. Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1963.
Staunton, Leslie. Lorca: A Dream of Life. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.
Stone, Rob. The Flamenco Tradition in the Works of Federico García Lorca and Carlos Saura: The Wounded Throat. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2004.