Analysis of Gacela of the Dark Death
Federico García Lorca 1898 (Fuente Vaqueros) – 1936 (Alfacar)
I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
to withdraw from the tumult of cemetries.
I want to sleep the dream of that child
who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.
I don't want to hear again that the dead do not lose their blood,
that the putrid mouth goes on asking for water.
I don't want to learn of the tortures of the grass,
nor of the moon with a serpent's mouth
that labors before dawn.
I want to sleep awhile,
awhile, a minute, a century;
but all must know that I have not died;
that there is a stable of gold in my lips;
that I am the small friend of the West wing;
that I am the intense shadows of my tears.
Cover me at dawn with a veil,
because dawn will throw fistfuls of ants at me,
and wet with hard water my shoes
so that the pincers of the scorpion slide.
For I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
to learn a lament that will cleanse me to earth;
for I want to live with that dark child
who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.
Scheme | aabC xxxxx xdexxx xdxe axbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011010 101101011 111101111 11011111011 111110110111111 101011110110 111111010101 110110101 110011 111101 010100100 111111111 11101011011 1110111011 1110011111 10111101 0111111111 01111011 11010101001 11111011010 11001111111 111111111 11011111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 942 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 5, 6, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 147 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 25, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 433 Views
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