Analysis of Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude

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



The fat lady came out first,
tearing out roots and moistening drumskins.
The fat lady
who turns dying octopuses inside out.
The fat lady, the moon's antagonist,
was running through the streets and deserted buildings
and leaving tiny skulls of pigeons in the corners
and stirring up the furies of the last centuries' feasts
and summoning the demon of bread through the sky's clean-swept hills
and filtering a longing for light into subterranean tunnels.
The graveyards, yes the graveyards
and the sorrow of the kitchens buried in sand,
the dead, pheasants and apples of another era,
pushing it into our throat.

There were murmuring from the jungle of vomit
with the empty women, with hot wax children,
with fermented trees and tireless waiters
who serve platters of salt beneath harps of saliva.
There's no other way, my son, vomit! There's no other way.
It's not the vomit of hussars on the breasts of their whores,
nor the vomit of cats that inadvertently swallowed frogs,
but the dead who scratch with clay hands
on flint gates where clouds and desserts decay.

The fat lady came first
with the crowds from the ships, taverns, and parks.
Vomit was delicately shaking its drums
among a few little girls of blood
who were begging the moon for protection.
Who could imagine my sadness?
The look on my face was mine, but now isn't me,
the naked look on my face, trembling for alcohol
and launching incredible ships
through the anemones of the piers.
I protect myself with this look
that flows from waves where no dawn would go,
I, poet without arms, lost
in the vomiting multitude,
with no effusive horse to shear
the thick moss from my temples.

The fat lady went first
and the crowds kept looking for pharmacies
where the bitter tropics could be found.
Only when a flag went up and the first dogs arrived
did the entire city rush to the railings of the boardwalk.


Scheme ABCXXBBBBBBXDX XEBDFBBBF ABBXEBCXBBXXXXXB ABXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 0110111 1011011 0110 11101011 0110010100 110101001010 0101011100010 0101011011001 010001011101111 010001011010010010 01101 001010101001 0110010101010 10101101 101001010110 10101011110 10101010010 1110110111010 11101111011101 1101011101111 10101110100101 10111111 1111100101 011011 1011011001 10110001011 010110111 1010011010 11010110 011111111101 0101111100110 01001001 101101 1011111 111111111 1100111 0010010 11100111 0111110 011011 0011101100 101010111 1010111001101 100101011010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,826
Words 328
Sentences 16
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 14, 9, 16, 5
Lines Amount 44
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 373
Words per stanza (avg) 82
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

1:40 min read
104

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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    "Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13446/landscape-of-a-vomiting-multitude>.

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