Pictured here is Phillips Hall on the George Washington University campus. The Romance Languages and Literatures department is on the fifth floor.

You'd think that on sunny day like this everyone would be wide awake at 9:35am, right? The bitter cold should 've waken us all up. Maybe we were all still half-asleep or perhaps I'm now realizing that not everyone in the class is a serious student of poetry...yet.

Typical poetry class procedure: read each line of poetry then the professor asks what each line means. Well, today we had a more blank stares than usual. Backing up a little we reviewed the basics of poetry appreciation:

Read first for literal meaning. Then reread to look for deeper meaning.

We continued analyzing "Las Morillas de Jaen" which is Lorca's adaptation of an Arabic poem in the form of a zejel on the topic of prohibited love between a christian man and three muslim girls (Morillas=Moriscas). A recurring theme in Lorca's works: unfulfilled (and in this case, forbidden) desire.

Next, as we read through Anda Jaleo, professor Echeverria explained the historical context as a poetic statement about the political climate of the time. Then we listened to cantaora Carmen Linares' flamenco interpretation in the rhythm of bulerias.

Near the end of this class session, I played a seguiriya on the guitar before we read the poem Poema de la Seguiriya Gitana and explored the symbolism. I'm starting to get the hang of this and even managed to contribute a few times to the discussion.

I'm looking forward to going on a field trip this weekend to contemplate Lorca's thoughts as he composed "Poeta en Nueva York."