The House of the Flowers was the real name of Pablo Neruda's (the speaker) house in Madrid, where he had moved in 1934 after having been appointed consul of Chile in that Spanish city. Every spring, the facade of the house, which still exists today, is covered with the flowers that adorn its balconies, and, moreover, throughout the building there are several patios with abundant vegetation. The speaker mentions the name of the house, and he describes it with detail, emotion, and pride, because flowers mean life, and joy, and beauty, and since he is also recalling the day everything changed when the Spanish Civil War broke out, bringing death and desolation to his neighborhood, it is a very effective way to compare the two realities: flowers and life and beauty as opposed to "burning metal" and war and death. This emblematic building was severely damaged during the conflict, and soldiers from the republican side lived in it and used it as a warehouse.
