Two Lunar Writers

Thomas Wolfe

What do Thomas Wolfe (1930-1938) and Federico Garcia Lorca have in common? How about the moon? Both have used the moon and the imagery, sentiments and landscapes it evokes to supplement their some of their works. For me, we see Garcia Lorca make full use of this in his obra maestra (masterpiece) "Bodas de Sangre." He was described as a lunar poet by his biographer Ian Gibson and you would be hard pressed to dispute this claim. Lorca's allegorical style and personification in "Bodas de Sangre" give this work an energy and drive unlike any others.

I recently began to read the works of Thomas Wolfe. Look Homeward, Angel is an excellent book which showcases Wolfe's superb lyrical skills. His descriptions of landscapes and people are stellar. But it is in the book I am currently reading, Of Time and the River, where he describes in magnificent and resplendent detail landscapes and people under the moon. These days people do not read books that are longer than 300 pages in length, so they are highly unlikely to attempt to read some of Wolfe's books (between 600 and 900 pages. How sad. Check out this segment from Of Time and the River:

"The moon blazed down upon the wilderness, it fell on sleeping woods, it dripped through moving leaves, it swarmed in weaving patterns in the earth, and it filled the cat's still eye with blazing yellow. The moon slept over mountains and lay like silence in the desert, and it carved the shadows of great rocks like time."