[Nelson Caceres]

One of the poems that I have chosen to discuss is “The City Does Not Sleep’ From A Poet in New York by Lorca. I can definitely relate to this poem as a young man living in New York in the year 2015. The vibe that I got from this poem is New York City is constantly busy and in a rush to get things done, which is why I think Lorca is not talking about actual sleep in this poem. “We walk down the stairs to eat the moist earth”, this line to me represents the daily early morning departure from our house whether its school or work or both just to gain either education to earn a higher paying job or more money from work so that way we can replenish our thirst which I took as hunger and being able to bring the daily bread home. Being a New York native I know for a fact that so many people go through that daily struggle of rushing to get to work to get that paycheck, crowded trains at 6 o’clock in the morning shows how much of that symbolic stairs we are walking down. Another line from the poem that spoke to me was “The creatures of the moon sniff and prowl about their cabins”. What I took from this line is the creatures of the moon or night people which would be the people who tend to stay up a little later then others. People now a days sleep regularly at midnight or sometimes even later then that, I know a majority of my friends and people my age do anyways. I feel like Lorca is talking about the people of the night who text or call on the phone at late hours of the night at home or are ‘facebooking’ or ‘istagraming’ at 2am would be the ‘prowling about their cabins’ in which Lorca was talking about.

Then second poem I chose was “Dawn”. From what I read I feel that the dawn is just more of the sun going down. I feel that Lorca wanted the Dawn to represent the hardships of what the day has on individuals. “The dawn comes and no one receives it in his mouth, for there no morn or hope is possible”. Nobody openly wants to go through the stress of school or work but regardless we take it which is what I feel Lorca was saying, and by taking those responsibilities you are receiving it in his(the dawn) mouth rejecting hope for peace and happiness due to the uncomfortable feeling of long stressful days. “They know they are going to the mud of figures and law, to artless games, to fruitless sweat”
This line really expresses to me the hardship in which he is talking about. The artless games and fruitless sweat meaning doing what needs to be done not because you do it out of joy and happiness but because your job has to get completed in order for you to get that paycheck from work, the fruitless sweat in which you produce day in and day out.

Part 2
What is Duende?
Upon reading “The Play in the Theory of Duende” by Lorca I tried to decipher what that particular word actually meant-duende. I feel like duende is an emotion in which art can bring. “All of the arts are capable of duende, but where it naturally creates most space, is in music, dance and spoken poetry”. Now I haven’t felt duende through this poem but I have felt duende through music. There are times where I listen to a song and it gives me duende meaning it takes me back to a time and within that I feel an emotion. That to me can be duende. OR my parents experience duende when dancing. When they dance salsa they told me it takes them back to Colombia when they were younger and felt so alive, duende through dance and music. This is what I took of as duende from the reading.