Example of Topographic Description

The technique of topographic description keeps the observer motionless, looking at everything from one angle of view. It is typical of the chronicler who travels to describe the landscape from a railway, a car or an airplane. It does not consist of an enumeration of details, but rather of the presentation of the features that characterize a landscape.

Example of topographic description:

DEAD GARDEN
"The morning falls rainy on the garden... At the end of a muddy slope and next to a cross, green and black with humidity, is the rotten wooden door that leads into the abandoned enclosure. Beyond is a gray stone bridge, and in the misty distance a snowy mountain. At the bottom of the valley and between rocks the gentle river runs humming its old song.
In a black hut next to the door, two old men in torn capes are warming themselves over the fire of badly lit brands... The interior of the enclosure is distressing and desolate. The rain further accentuates this impression. It slips easily. On the ground there are big dead logs... The walls, high and yellow, are crossed by huge cracks, through which the lizards come out, which walk forming indecipherable arabesques with their bodies. In the background there is a rest of the cloister with ivy and dried flowers, with sloping columns. In the cracks of the crumbling stones there are yellow flowers full of raindrops; on the soils there are puddles of moisture among the grasses... "(Cf. Complementary bibliography, N? 4)

Federico García Lorca.