Analyzing the artistic value in the two stanzas of Lorca's Guitar Sonata: 'Spain... blood flowing'

Sample essay analyzing the artistic value in the two stanzas of Lorca's Guitar Sonata: 'Spain... blood flowing'

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1. Analyzing the artistic value in the two stanzas of Lorca's Guitar Sonata: 'Spain... blood flowing', sample essay #1

Thanh Thao is a mature poet in the final stage of the resistance war against the US to save the nation. After 1975, Thanh Thao was one of the poets who devoted much effort to renewing Vietnamese poetry. On one hand, Thanh Thao constantly pondered, experimented to innovate the forms of expression in poetry. On the other hand, he always sought the 'human essence' in noble, indomitable personalities, in souls that love freedom, ready to live, fight, and sacrifice for the ideals they have chosen. Lorca's Guitar poem has demonstrated that. Especially, in the following excerpt, Thanh Thao highlighted the heroic beauty of the character Lorca:

Spain
sings softly
suddenly horrified
scarlet cloak dripping

Lor-ca, enchanted by the shooting range,
walked as if in a dream
his guitar's melody tan,
the sky that girl,
the green leaves' guitar tune
the guitar's sound, bubbles of water bursting,
the resounding guitar,
blood flowing.

The verse captures the most harrowing moment in Ga-xi-a Lor-ca's life. It's when he was brutally murdered by fascist thugs and dumped into a well for disposal. As we know, Gar-xi-a was the greatest poet of 20th century Spain. His poetry intertwined flesh and blood with the pulse of folk culture, innocence, and exuberance, portraying the fierce vitality of his people. Hence, he was a thorn in the side of the Francoist fascists, and they eliminated him.

Sample essay analyzing the artistic value in the first two stanzas of Lorca's Guitar Sonata, intriguing

In this poem, Thanh Thao expresses profound sympathy and vividly depicts Lor-ca's gruesome death using two prominent artistic techniques: contrast and amplification. Firstly, we see the poet portraying a figure of freedom, embracing the carefree life of an artist in opposition to the savage, brutal nature of fascism; contrasting the joyful singing with the harsh, bitter, blood-drenched reality:

Spain
sings softly
suddenly horrified
scarlet cloak dripping
scarlet cloak dripping
Lor-ca, enchanted by the shooting range
walks like a dreamer

And therein lies the contrast between love for beauty and brutality.

Alongside contrast, poet Thanh Thao also employs quite successfully and uniquely the technique of personification:

the resounding guitar, blood flowing

The sound of the guitar here ceases to be ordinary; it becomes Lor-ca's essence, the body and soul of Lor-ca, a spirit, a body, and a mood in agony, in pain, deeply saddened by the atrocities, the brutality. Thanh Thảo's portrayal of Lor-ca's guitar is akin to Nguyễn Du's description of Thúy Kiều's guitar playing for Hồ Tôn Hiến to hear:

A bow of wind, a scene of sorrowful rain
Four tiny strings, blood on the fingertips...

Lor-ca's guitar or Thúy Kiều's guitar here has stirred the entire space, sinking deeply into the reader's thoughts, evoking in the reader a feeling of love, compassion, and admiration for the noble character of those who always yearn for freedom, love beauty but are crushed by brutal forces; also arousing in the reader a sense of indignation towards the vile, ruthless forces.

Additionally, the author employs metaphorical language in the description: using 'singing' to refer to Lor-ca, using the imagery of 'scarlet cloak dripping' to depict Lor-ca's death. Furthermore, in this poem, the author also employs numerous vivid similes that carry profound allegorical meanings like 'the brown guitar's melody', 'the green leaves' guitar tune', 'the guitar's sound, bubbles of water bursting'. These similes are allegorical images of love, beauty, life, death, pain, and resentment.

the brown guitar's melody
the sky that girl
the green leaves' guitar tune knows how many
the guitar's sound, bubbles of water bursting
the resounding guitar, blood flowing.

In summary, in the above poem, poet Thanh Thao has employed quite a few artistic techniques such as contrast, personification, metaphor, simile, allegory to express her emotions towards Gar-xi-a Lor-ca. These artistic techniques sometimes stand alone, sometimes intertwine, permeate each other to recreate the most harrowing moments in Lor-ca's life. This shows Thanh Thao's profound admiration and deep emotion for the noble character and the unjust fate of the talented Spanish artist. Thanh Thao, in this poem, has conveyed her emotions to the readers. Indeed, 'Poetry opens the door from the heart and touches the heart,' as someone once said.

>>> Essays related to Lorca's guitar piece

Apart from the above articles, the Grade 12 Literature program also includes many essays related to Lorca's guitar piece such as Analysis of artistic language in Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata poem, Analysis of the central imagery throughout Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata poem, Analysis of inspiration from Lor-ca's tragic death in Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata poem. Students need to refer to these outlines + sample essays for review, preparation for their classroom tests, and exams.

2. Analyzing the artistic value in the two stanzas of Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata: 'Spain... blood flows incessantly', model number 2

In Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata, Thanh Thảo expresses her love, reverence, not only with all her soul, emotions but also with an extraordinary artistry. This is demonstrated in the first two stanzas of Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata:

Spain
sings clamorously
suddenly horrified
red-soaked cloak
Lor-ca yearns for the shooting range
he walks like a dreamer
the brown guitar's sound
the sky that girl
the green leaves' guitar tune knows how many
the guitar's sound, bubbles of water bursting
the resounding guitar, blood flowing.

In these two stanzas (stanzas 2 and 3 - Lor-ca's Guitar Sonata), poet Thanh Thảo has recreated the most harrowing moment in Gar-xi-a Lor-ca's life. The most harrowing moment in Gar-xi-a Lor-ca's life is when he was murdered by the fascists and thrown into a well for burial. The second and third stanzas focus vividly on that harrowing death. To highlight this, the poet Thanh Thảo has used two prominent rhetorical devices: contrast and personification. In contrast, the poet contrasts the freedom of the opposition artist with the violence and brutality of the fascists; brings Lor-ca's carefree singing contrasted with the grim reality to 'horrifying', full of bloodshed ('red-soaked cloak', 'the guitar's sound, bubbles of water bursting', 'the resounding guitar, blood flowing'). And above all is the contrast between the love of beauty and the savage, brutal forces. In personification, the poet has a unique personification: the poet has personified the 'guitar sound' into a character (Lor-ca), a human individual who is 'bleeding profusely'. This personification has a very special haunting power, it speaks of Lor-ca's horror, evokes the poet's profound pain and sorrow before Lor-ca's tragic tragedy. With this personification, poet Thanh Thảo has shown us: music has become a destiny, the sound of the guitar has become a soul, a whole organism, a body.