Federico García Lorca was a Spanish point who explored themes of love, nature, death, particularly in the context of Spanish culture. Sleepwalking Ballad originally titled as ‘Romance Sonambulo’ is one of Lorca’s most popular poems. Federico García Lorca like most intellectuals of his time was on the side of the socialist government. This poem is one of the works that led to Lorca’s arrest and execution.
Most of the poem focuses on the speaker’s longing for a woman with green hair and green skin. He repeats several times how much he “wants” and loves the colour green—it becomes a symbol of his longing for a new kind of life. The speaker tells the reader how much he likes the colour green. The poem describes green branches and green wind, bringing the colour to life in nature. This is a very mysterious poem. Lorca himself said it remained as much a mystery to him as to anyone else. The poem is loaded with symbols of death, so green—the colour of life—appears to represent a direct contrast. There can be multiple interpretations of the green colour, one of which is the “semi-conscious state” that the poem takes place in. Green might also be a symbol of desire.
By describing the wind and branches as green, Lorca brings nature to life, making the colour feel almost magical. The images of a ship on the sea and a horse on the mountain suggest movement and distance. They could symbolise a journey or a separation. Lorca uses a mysterious female figure surrounded by shadows, which might suggest sadness, secrecy, or isolation. She is dreaming, which adds to the poem’s surreal tone. The woman is herself described as green with silver, cold eyes. Her cold, silver eyes represent death, distance. The poem also contains the ‘gypsy’ trope. He uses the phrase “under the gypsy moon,” which connects to a larger theme in Lorca’s works. Gypsy is a marginalised group in Spain with a rich oral tradition, music, and deep connection to nature. By calling the moon gypsy, Lorca is giving it a supernatural quality. The girl is being observed by forces that she can’t see or control, much like how Gypsies were often judged by the mainstream Spanish society.
Lorca repeatedly uses the refrain “Green, I want your green.” The stars, covered in frost, create a cold, distant feeling. He uses “fish of shadow,” an unusual image possibly representing the shifting darkness before dawn. He personifies the fig tree, making it seem alive. The forest is compared to a cat. The scene holds both strength and vulnerability—just like a cat’s fur standing on end, ready to fight, but also capable of breaking. The balcony is the place where the girl waited for her lover to return to her. Only, he came back a little too late. The girl is similar to tragic figures such as Ophelia and Sappho, as Lorca draws from Shakespeare and ancient Greek literature.
Another narrator is a wounded smuggler fleeing from the Guardia Civil. His journey from the gates of Cabra—a region known for smuggling suggests that he is trying to return home, much like Odysseus in The Odyssey. However, unlike Odysseus, he arrives too late. His lover is already dead, and his perception of reality is blurred by his physical pain. His hallucinations make him an unreliable narrator. In the third stanza, this narrator talks to his friend and asks to trade his horse and saddle—things that belong to a traveller or a gypsy in exchange for a house and a mirror, which represent a settled life. This suggests that he no longer wants to keep wandering; he wants stability, love, and a home. The woman in the poem seems to be the reason he wants to go to her and start a new life. The mention of Cabra is specific because it refers to a place in Spain where there was violence in the past. However, the friend’s response is unreal, and it suggests something supernatural, as if the friend is no longer alive. Realising that he can’t have the life he hoped for, the speaker asks for one thing: to die in his own bed. This reflects a sad fate—he came back dreaming of love and home, but instead finds loss.
The speaker has been wounded from his chest to throat and is close to death. He presents a last request: if he can’t trade for a home or die in his bed, he asks to climb up to the “green balconies” to reach the green girl with cold, silver eyes. This is his last hope—to see the woman he loves. The balcony is compared to water, making the scene more surreal and dreamlike. The narrator and his friend climb over the “high balconies.” They leave behind a trail of blood and teardrops while climbing. Here, blood and tears symbolise suffering, loss, and desperation, foreshadowing the speaker’s death.
In the final stanza, the poet again uses the line “Green, I want you green.” The setting is dreamlike and mysterious. The speaker’s friend asks him where the girl is, as she is no longer where she was before, and something has changed. Her hair, which was once green, is now black. This shift possibly symbolises death, darkness, or loss of hope. In the ending, the girl is seen swinging on the mount of a green cistern. She is held by an “icicle of the moon,” which is cold and dead. The woman has possibly killed herself, waiting for her lover all alone.
Suddenly, reality breaks in as the Guardia Civiles (civil guards) bang on the door. These men, known for enforcing authority in Spain, represent the harsh real world, contrasting with the dreamlike setting of the poem. They are drunk and chaotic. The poem ends with the refrain, as the speaker remains stuck in his longing and pain. He fails to reach the woman, and she possibly kills herself. The lover, too, likely dies from his wounds in the end.