Trudell is a freelance writer with a bachelor's degree in English literature. In the following essay, Trudell highlights Lorca's self-consciousness about language and expression in "Gacela of the Dark Death."

"Gacela of the Dark Death" is mainly concerned with the interplay between life, death, sleep, and love; the sleep of apples connotes a soulful life and peaceful sleep balanced with violent temptation, and the image of a child cutting his heart out on the sea combines ideas of regeneration, erotic love, and death. The Diván at Tamarit displays some of Lorca's subtlest thematic explorations, however, and "Gacela of the Dark Death" is a good example of the poet's ability to explore a variety of secondary feelings and themes that weave through the structure of the poem. For example, a strand of self-consciousness runs underneath each stanza, questioning the function of poetry and the power (or...