Analysis of Gacela of the Dead Child

Federico García Lorca 1898 (Fuente Vaqueros) – 1936 (Alfacar)



Each afternoon in Granada,
each afternoon, a child dies.
Each afternoon the water sits down
and chats with its companions.

The dead wear mossy wings.
The cloudy wind and the clear wind
are two pheasants in flight through the towers,
and the day is a wounded boy.

Not a flicker of lark was left in the air
when I met you in the caverns of wine.
Not the crumb of a cloud was left in the ground
when you were drowned in the river.

A giant of water fell down over the hills,
and the valley was tumbling with lilies and dogs.
In my hands' violet shadow, your body,
dead on the bank, was an angel of coldness.


Scheme XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1010010 101011 10101011 0111010 01111 01010011 1110011010 00110101 10101111001 1111001011 10110111001 11010010 010110111001 0010110011001 0111001110 11011110110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 596
Words 120
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 118
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

36 sec read
219

Federico García Lorca

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He was executed by Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. In 2008, a Spanish judge opened an investigation into Lorca's death. The García Lorca family eventually dropped objections to the excavation of a potential gravesite near Alfacar. However, no human remains were found. more…

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