Poems

About this book

The work of Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's greatest modern poet, has long been admired for its emotional intensity and metaphorical brilliance. Few poets take us more directly and memorably to what Lorca described as "the dark root of the scream," the terrain of the duende, where inspiration delivers a new poetic reality and "intelligence" discovers its limitations. For many years, until the recent publication of FSG's Collected Poems, English readers' view of Lorca has been determined by a few well-known books - The Divan at Tamarit, Poet in New York, The Gypsy Ballads - and by a lamentably small number of poems. Now this Selected Verse, the most complete paperback anthology available in English, draws on FSG's two-volume Poetical Works, providing authoritative versions by outstanding poets and translators: Francisco Aragon, Catherine Brown, Cola Franzen, Will Kirkland, William Bryant Logan, Jerome Rothenberg, Greg Simon, Alan S. Trueblood, John K. Walsh, and Steven F. White. In this bilingual edition, Lorca's poetic range comes clearly into view, from the playful Suites and stylized evocations of Andalusia to the utter gravity and mystery of the final elegies, confirming his stature as one of our century's finest poets.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Federico García Lorca

5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936

Federico García Lorca (Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, 5 June 1898 - camino de Víznar a Alfacar, Granada, 18 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. He achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting of mostly poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature. He was killed by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His remains have never been found. Lorca universe is defined by a palpable systematism: poetry, drama and prose feed on obsessions - love, desire, sterility - and constant stylistic keys. The variety of sha…