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FAREWELL - Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)


Farewell by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), is a romantic lyric expressing a longing for the scenes to feast on even after death. The poem in a way expresses the individual's interest to continue living in the physical world: earth. The speaker of the poem is asking someone, perhaps one of his family members, to leave the balcony open if he dies, because from his balcony he wants to see the little boy eating oranges and hear the reaper (a person or machine that harvests a crop) harvesting the wheat and singing. The speaker's wish shows that this world is a very enjoyable place. Life here is real and we must enjoy it. 

The boy eating oranges in the garden and the reaper harvesting wheat refers to common human psychology. A boy is more focused on today. His eating oranges might refer to his adolescence and his interest to fulfil his hunger only.  In the same way, the reaper harvesting wheat signifies the money-minded nature of grown-ups. Both of them do not seem to be conscious and concerned about approaching death as the speaker (old man) is feeling now in a death bed waiting to be dead. To sum up, the farewell here in the poem signifies the ultimate leave from this world, and Death is regarded to be the final and the most unpleasant of farewells.

In this poem, the word balcony is repeated four times from where the speaker can have a clear view of the world. The repetition shows that the speaker is interested more in celebrating the pleasures of life rather than death.

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