... is shown by the seasons. Machado's primary subject is the landscape of his country. Whether this landscape is 'agrios campos' or 'tierra fria', it is shown in relation to the people that live on it and how it changes through the year and over the years. Each poem represents a moment in the time of the people and the landscape itself. Richard Havard comments 'Machado treats landscape as a medium by which to analyse the condition of Spain and the psyche of its central region'. With each glance the reader receives more information about not only the visual Spain but also the mental attitudes and feelings present in that visual Spain. In 'El hospicio', Machado uses a hospice as the setting for his poem. He presents the 'caseron ruinoso' as a place of despair, raising questions of social concern about the treatment of the poor, the old, and the sick. ...

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