The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca

Rating:
Summary: Garcia Lorca is one of the Greatest poets to ever write.
Review: Garcia Lorca's poetry moves, his words each have their own color.
As I read his poems I feel like I am being presented with a little gift. His words are beats I cannot escape. I need an open window so I can see the sky whenever I read his poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Garcia Lorca is one of the Greatest poets to ever write.
Review: Garcia Lorca's poetry moves, his words each have their own color.
As I read his poems I feel like I am being presented with a little gift. His words are beats I cannot escape. I need an open window so I can see the sky whenever I read his poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Passions of lyrical eloquence that strike the supreme.
Review: Textures of shade & light are captured in wistful remembrance lilting to the souls peak of drama.The moon,the sun & the stars share an uncommon kinship with the river on the parched landsapes of Granada clothing themselves in the veil of the symbol trespassing unwarranted bounds of reality.Hopeless tears that brood on the endless musings of life & death are met by a distant traveller who comes across two dark doves that rest on a trees branches bathing in the warm heat of the late afternoon sun.

Rating:
Summary: Mágico puro / Pure magic
Review: There are no words to adequately describe García Lorca who was one of the greatest artists of the last century. The poems in "Selected Poems" represent some of the best of his collections, "Romancero Gitano", "Libro de Poemas", and the dark, brooding "Poema del Cante Jondo". Stephen Spender's excellent translation manages to preserve García Lorca's exquisite imagery without making it sound maudlin or overstated. García Lorca really has to be read in the original Spanish to be able to get a complete realization of his incredible talent as a poet, but those monolingual English speakers to whom the book is directed will be able to appreciate through this translation what a genius was lost to the world when at the age of 38 he was assassinated in the Spanish Civil War. García Lorca astonishes and amazes us with his brilliant artistry, his deceptively simple yet complex imagery, and the voice of haunting pathos that is surely the voice of Spain. Even readers who don't particularly like poetry will be held spellbound by the poems presented here.

Rating:
Summary: Mágico puro / Pure magic
Review: There are no words to adequately describe García Lorca who was one of the greatest artists of the last century. The poems in "Selected Poems" represent some of the best of his collections, "Romancero Gitano", "Libro de Poemas", and the dark, brooding "Poema del Cante Jondo". Stephen Spender's excellent translation manages to preserve García Lorca's exquisite imagery without making it sound maudlin or overstated. García Lorca really has to be read in the original Spanish to be able to get a complete realization of his incredible talent as a poet, but those monolingual English speakers to whom the book is directed will be able to appreciate through this translation what a genius was lost to the world when at the age of 38 he was assassinated in the Spanish Civil War. García Lorca astonishes and amazes us with his brilliant artistry, his deceptively simple yet complex imagery, and the voice of haunting pathos that is surely the voice of Spain. Even readers who don't particularly like poetry will be held spellbound by the poems presented here.

Rating:
Summary: Mágico puro / Pure magic
Review: There are no words to adequately describe García Lorca who was one of the greatest artists of the last century. The poems in "Selected Poems" represent some of the best of his collections, "Romancero Gitano", "Libro de Poemas", and the dark, brooding "Poema del Cante Jondo". Stephen Spender's excellent translation manages to preserve García Lorca's exquisite imagery without making it sound maudlin or overstated. García Lorca really has to be read in the original Spanish to be able to get a complete realization of his incredible talent as a poet, but those monolingual English speakers to whom the book is directed will be able to appreciate through this translation what a genius was lost to the world when at the age of 38 he was assassinated in the Spanish Civil War. García Lorca astonishes and amazes us with his brilliant artistry, his deceptively simple yet complex imagery, and the voice of haunting pathos that is surely the voice of Spain. Even readers who don't particularly like poetry will be held spellbound by the poems presented here.

Rating:
Summary: vi en tus ojos dos arbolitos. de risa, de brisa, y de oro.
Review: this collection is an unadulterated, initial investigation into las obras del poeta mas famoso del mundo poetico y homosexual.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant, forbidding, and intense
Review: This volume is bilingual and in this case the English translations can hold their own against the Spanish (and Galician) originals. It culls poems from every period in the poet's life, thereby giving the reader a huge range of Garcia Lorca's work - from the talking lizards to the masterpiece "Poet in New York" to traditional gacelas.

While some of the poems seem superficial, others are loaded with meaning. Some critics have said that Lorca's preoccupation with death seemed to foreshadow his own, which came in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, many of these poems have dark overtones. Lorca never loses the passion and intensity, however. His love poems are majestic in their images and emotion, which are surprisingly undimmed in translation.

In particular, Lorca's language - especially his metaphors and similes - are unusual and striking. His imagery conjures up fantastical scenes; maybe one could say he writes the way that Salvador Dali painted. If you're looking for an introduction to Lorca (or if you're approaching him with some trepidation), then I'd suggest this book. It will give you a good feel for his development as a poet as well as his overal style.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant, forbidding, and intense
Review: This volume is bilingual and in this case the English translations can hold their own against the Spanish (and Galician) originals. It culls poems from every period in the poet's life, thereby giving the reader a huge range of Garcia Lorca's work - from the talking lizards to the masterpiece "Poet in New York" to traditional gacelas.

While some of the poems seem superficial, others are loaded with meaning. Some critics have said that Lorca's preoccupation with death seemed to foreshadow his own, which came in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, many of these poems have dark overtones. Lorca never loses the passion and intensity, however. His love poems are majestic in their images and emotion, which are surprisingly undimmed in translation.

In particular, Lorca's language - especially his metaphors and similes - are unusual and striking. His imagery conjures up fantastical scenes; maybe one could say he writes the way that Salvador Dali painted. If you're looking for an introduction to Lorca (or if you're approaching him with some trepidation), then I'd suggest this book. It will give you a good feel for his development as a poet as well as his overal style.

Rating:
Summary: Finally a collection of Lorca I like
Review: Translations usually don't do justice to Lorca's poetry, who seemed distant and maudlin in some of the earlier translations that I had read. A friend assured me that Lorca was worth pursuing, and indeed he was. In this collection, which features crisp and sharp translations, including those by Stephen Spender, Lorca's poetry emerges with all the strength and pathos it must have in Spanish. He strikes at the core of human longing, the eternal desire for love and death, with a simple and sometimes abstract imagery. Highly recommended for all readers of poetry.