Product Description

Spain's greatest 20th-century poet and most influencial modernist speaks to a new generation of readers in this revised edition of his complete poetical works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131659 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1056 pages

Customer Reviews

Spain's Greatest Poet of the 20th Century
Although Lorca never read a word of English, his works are most often compared thematically, musically, and stylistically to the British Romantic period, most notably to Byron and Keats. Although I do not condone the reading of a "translation," the translators help the reader understand Lorca's immense vocabulary and innovative grammatical sense. Although his style is not atypical of the modernist era (writing between the first and second world wars), his Spanish heritage brings a rich infusion of earthy and primitive themes. Much as Hughes expressed in "You Hated Spain," the rich underbelly of Lorca's Andalucia gives a sense of trying to break out of the dogmatic Catholic Spanish culture he is working in. His Sonetos del Amor Oscuro, written up to his murder, are among the greatest love poems I've ever read. Despite them being written to a male lover, like Auden's love poems they retain a sense of universiality. And it is simply possible that his homosexuality is a great motivating force in his works. If you should read no other poems of his, I would recommend Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, his elegy to a friend who died fighting a bull, the Sonetos del amor oscuro, and his collection of poems, Poet en Nueva York. I highly recommend anyone who speaks Spanish or who has a deep love of the Lost Generation read these works.