Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Federico García Lorca's "City That Does Not Sleep," translated by Robert Bly, the atmosphere is one of unyielding urgency, a place where the metaphysical meets the terrestrial in an unsettling nocturnal dance. The poem starts with an emphatic declaration: "Nobody is asleep. Nobody, nobody." Immediately, we are plunged into a world where the normal rules of night and day, of sleep and wakefulness, are suspended. It's as if the entire universe is locked in a state of hyperawareness.

Lorca paints an eerie and surreal portrait of a world in a vigil-like state. Even the "creatures of the moon" are active, sniffing and prowling, reinforcing the sense of life led in opposition to natural laws. This nightmarish reality has its denizens-living iguanas that bite men who do not dream, an alligator that sits quiet "beneath the tender protest of the stars," and a corpse that has moaned for years "because of a dry countryside on his knee." It's as though the act of dreaming, or the ability to transcend reality, even temporarily, is not just a luxury but a survival imperative in this dark landscape.

The urgency reaches its peak in the middle section with the cautionary cries of "Careful! Careful! Careful!" This repetition serves as a dire warning against complacency. In Lorca's world, there is no room for forgetfulness or dreams, only the brutal tangibility of "flesh" and "kisses" that tie mouths "in a thicket of new veins." Whoever feels pain or is afraid of death will carry it forever. It is as if our deepest fears and traumas are not just internal states but lifelong companions.

Then comes a shift in the poem. It is a prophetic glimpse into a cataclysmic future, where "horses will live in the saloons," and "preserved butterflies rise from the dead." These apocalyptic images further disrupt our sense of reality, blending the impossible with the plausible, and forcing the reader to question what they know about the natural world.

Finally, the poem returns to its initial theme of wakefulness, but the urgency has intensified. Anyone who dares to close their eyes should be met with "a whip, boys, a whip!" Lorca calls for "a landscape of open eyes and bitter wounds on fire," articulating a collective state of crisis. There is a sense that to fall asleep, to turn away or to forget, is not just a personal failing but a societal one.

"City That Does Not Sleep" is an unsettling journey that disorients the reader, blurring the boundaries between waking and dreaming, life and death, reality and illusion. Lorca captures a heightened emotional and existential state, using a rich tapestry of vivid imagery to question our fundamental understandings of the world we inhabit. In this city, the danger is not just in the visible horrors, but in the act of closing one's eyes to them.

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