Paulo Neruda

1.
Pablo Neruda
Background Information
Birth Name: Neftal Ricardo Reyes Basoalto
Pen Name: Pablo Neruda (1946-1973)
Reason for Pen Name: His father disapproved of poetry and wanted Pablo to
pursue a more "practical" career.
Born: July 12, 1904
Died: September 23, 1972
Hometown: Parral, Chile
Education:
- Entered the Temuco Boys School in 1910 (age 6)
- Finished Secondary Schooling at the Temuco Boys School in 1920 (age 16)
Inspirations: Gabriela Mistral and Walt Whitman
-This Chilean poet, and diplomat, was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1971. His original name was Neftali Ricardo Reyes
Basoalto, but he used the pen name Pablo Neruda for over 20 years
before adopting it legally in 1946. Neruda is the most widely read of
the Spanish American poets. From the 1940s on, his works reflected
the political struggle of the left and the socio-historical developments
in South America.
-Neruda became known as a poet while he was still a teenager. He
wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics,
overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and erotically
charged love poems such as the ones in his collectionTwenty Love
Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).
- Green was his favorite color, he always wrote in green as it was the
color of hope. Gabriel Garca Marquez, Colombian novelist, once

referred to him as the greatest poet of the 20th century in any
language. He was a communist who fought for world unity and peace,
persecuted in his country and forced to exile, his work is a reflection
that safeguards the cultural heritage of Chile and the entire South
American continent.
Achievement/Accomplishment
-
The International Peace Prize in 1950

The Lenin Peace Prize in 1953
The Stalin Peace Prize also in 1953
The Nobel Prize in 1971
Struga Poetry Evenings - the Festival has awarded its most
prestigious award, the Golden Wreath, to some of the most notable
international poets, including
He wrote prodigiously and he started writing poems at
age 13.
He rose in the ranks of the 20th century.
"the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language"

Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a controversial award
because of his political activism.
During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic posts and
served a stint as senator for the Chilean Communist Party.
Literary Works
- Twenty Love Poems and a Song of

Despair: Tonight I can write
-
World's End
The Hands of the Day
The Book of Questions
The Yellow Heart
Stones of the Sky
The Sea and the Bells
Winter Garden
The Separate Rose
Still Another Day
On the Blue Shore of Silence: Poems of the Sea
The Captain's Verses
100 Love Sonnets
Extravagaria
Intimacies: Poems of Love
--- Crepusculario. Santiago, Ediciones Claridad, 1923.
Veinte poemas de amor y una cancin desesperada. Santiago,

Editorial Nascimento, 1924.
Tentativa del hombre infinito. Santiago, Editorial Nascimento, 1926.
Anillos. Santiago, Editorial Nascimento, 1926. (Prosa potica de
Pablo Neruda y Toms Lago.)
El hondero entusiasta. Santiago, Empresa Letras, 1933.
El habitante y su esperanza. Novela. Santiago, Editorial Nascimento,
1926.
Residencia en la tierra (19251931). Madrid, Ediciones del rbol,
1935.
Espaa en el corazn. Himno a las glorias del pueblo en la guerra:
(19361937). Santiago, Ediciones Ercilla, 1937.
Nuevo canto de amor a Stalingrado. Mxico, 1943.
Tercera residencia (19351945). Buenos Aires, Losada, 1947.
Canto general. Mxico, Talleres Grficos de la Nacin, 1950.
Los versos del capitn. 1952.
Todo el amor. Santiago, Editorial Nascimento, 1953.
Las uvas y el viento. Santiago, Editorial Nascimento, 1954.
Odas elementales. Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1954.
Nuevas odas elementales. Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1955.
Tercer libro de las odas. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1957.
Estravagario. Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1958.
Navegaciones y regresos Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1959.
Cien sonetos de amor. Santiago, Editorial Universitaria, 1959.
Cancin de gesta. La Habana, Imprenta Nacional de Cuba, 1960.
Poesas: Las piedras de Chile. Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada,
1960.Las Piedras de Pablo Neruda Cantos ceremoniales. Buenos
Aires, Losada, 1961.
Memorial de Isla Negra. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1964. 5 volmenes.
Arte de pjaros. Santiago, Ediciones Sociedad de Amigos del Arte
Contemporneo, 1966.
Fulgor y muerte de Joaqun Murieta. Santiago, Zig-Zag, 1967. La
obra fue escrita con la intencin de servir de libreto para una pera
de Sergio Ortega.
La Barcarola. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1967.
Las manos del da. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1968.
Comiendo en Hungra. Editorial Lumen, Barcelona, 1969. (En coautora con Miguel ngel Asturias)
Fin del mundo. Santiago, Edicin de la Sociedad de Arte
Contemporneo, 1969. Con Ilustraciones de Mario Carreo, Nemesio
Antnez, Pedro Millar, Mara Martner, Julio Escmez y Oswaldo
Guayasamn. An. Editorial Nascimento, Santiago, 1969.
Maremoto. Santiago, Sociedad de Arte Contemporneo, 1970. Con
Xilografas a color de Carin Oldfelt Hjertonsson.
La espada encendida. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1970.

Las piedras del cielo. Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1970.
Discurso de Estocolmo. Alpignano, Italia, A. Tallone, 1972.
Geografa infructuosa Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1972.
La rosa separada. ditions du Dragon, Pars, 1972 con grabados de
Enrique Zaartu.
Incitacin al Nixonicidio y alabanza de la revolucin chilena.
Santiago, Empresa Editora Nacional Quimant, Santiago, 1973.
Selected Bibliography
Poetry
Viente poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada (1924)
Anillos (1926)
Residencia en la tierra (1933)
Espana en el corazon: Himno a las glorias del pueblo en la
guerra (1937)
Alturas de Macchu-Picchu (1948)
Canto General (1950)
Los versos del capitan: Poemas de amor (1952)
Las uvas y el viento (1954)
Odas elementales (1954)
Estravagario (1958)
Cien sonetos de amor (1959)
Cantos ceremoniales (1961)
Plenos poderes (1962)
Las piedras de Chile (1961)
Memorial de Isla Negra (1964)
Las piedras del cielo (1970)
El mar y las campanas: Poemas (1973)
La rosa separada (1973)
El corazon amarillo (1974)
Jardin de invierno (1974)
Libro de las preguntas (1974)
Prose
El habitante y su esperanza (1925)

Discurso pronunciado con ocasion de la entrega del premio Nobel
de literatura (1971)
Confieso que he vivido: Memorias (1974)
Correspondancia (1980)
Anthology
-
Paginas escogidas de Anatole France (1924)

Visiones de las hijas de Albion y el viajero mental (1935)
Romeo y Julieta (1964)
Cuarenta y cuatro (1967)
Drama
-
Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta: Bandido chileno injusticiado en

California el 23 julio 1853 (1967)
Poetry in Translation
-
Residence on Earth (1962)

The Heights of Macchu Picchu (1966)
Twenty Poems (1967)
A New Decade: Poems, 1958-1967 (1969)
Pablo Neruda: The Early Poems (1969)
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1969)
Selected Poems (1970)
Stones of the Sky (1970)
Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems (1971)
The Captains Verses (1972)
Extravagaria (1972)
New Poems, 1968-1970 (1972)
Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta (1972)
Five Decades: A Selection (Poems 1925-1970) (1974)
Fully Empowered: Plenos poderes (1975)
Memoirs (1976)
Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra Face to Face (1977)
Isla Negra: A Notebook (1980)
Passions and Impressions (1982)
Windows That Open Inward: Images of Chile (1984)
A Separate Rose (1985)
100 Love Sonnets (1986)
Winter Garden (1986)

The Stones of Chile (1987)
The House at Isla Negra (1988)
The Sea and the Bells (1988)
Late and Posthumous Poems, 1968-1974 (1989)
Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda (1990)
The Yellow Heart (1990)
The Book of Questions (1991)
Spain in the Heart: Hymn to the Glories of the People at War(1993)
Pablo Neruda: An Anthology of Odes (1994)
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon : Selected Poems of Pablo
Neruda (1998)
The Essential Neruda (2004)
-
Theme and Mood
Title: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of

Despair: Tonight I can write
Many of Nerudas Early Poems concentrate on Love,
Passion, and the broken Heart. For example in tonight I
can write, Neruda says Tonight I can write the saddest
lines./ I loved Her, and sometimes she loved me too./
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms./ I
kissed her again and again under the endless sky./
The Poem is a free verse and this is appropriate

because feelings of love have no structure.
Juxtaposition in line 27 I no longer love her, but

maybe I did loved her.
The realization Neruda has in this poem is that he

once loved this girl but no longer.
THEME
Memory and Reminiscence
"Tonight I Can Write" is a poem about memories of a lost love and the pain they can cause.
Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken. He
continually juxtaposes images of the passion he felt for the woman he loved with the
loneliness he experiences in the present. He is now at some distance from the relationship
and so acknowledges, "tonight I can write the saddest lines," suggesting that the pain he
suffered after losing his lover had previously prevented any reminiscences or descriptions of
it. While the pain he experienced had blocked his creative energies in the past, he is now
able to write about their relationship and find some comfort in "the verse [that] falls to the
soul like dew to the pasture."
Love and Passion
Throughout the poem, the speaker expresses his

great love for a woman with whom he had a
passionate romance. He remembers physical
details: her great still eyes, her voice, her
bright body, her infinite eyes. He also
remembers kissing
her again and again under the endless sky
admitting how I loved her. His love for her is still
evident even though he states
twice I no longer
The stanza that I found the most interesting in this poem was the following: I no longer love her, thats
certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long. (586)
To me, this stanza shows exactly the difficulty to forget someone who we have loved, and it implicitly says
that if we do forget about the loved one, then maybe that person was never really loved to start with. Also,
it creates a certain confusion to the reader, who is confused about the poets state of mind. Indeed, the
juxtaposition of certain and maybe could be considered an oxymoron.
Also, this can be interpreted as a never-ending cycle, where love is ephemeral, but the fact that we are
trying to forget makes love continual since remembering brings back memories of love. It can then be
concluded that love is always present for it is hard to get rid of it and forget it. This adds to the confusion
created in the stanza, where we have love depicted as a short process, even though it really is a long one.
In addition, this particular stanza makes the reader ask himself about what love is, and what is its true
meaning. But one could ask himself: would Neruba have had a similar approach to a love affair if he were
more mature, maybe towards the end of his life?
Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda

This poem is one of Nerudas earlier works on love, before he began to explore other genres such as
poverty and politics.
The poem begins with the declarative statement Tonight I can write the saddest lines, which is
repeated throughout the poem. Neruda doesnt tell us why he feels this way for a few more lines, with
three simple, but powerful words I loved her. A theme of distance begins to evolve, with Neruda
contemplating the natural world and how it reminds him of his love, for example he used to hold her
under the endless sky.
I was drawn to the contradictions in some of his thoughts, which I feel really emphasize the turmoil
and complicity he was experiencing (going from I loved her to sometime I love her). You really get
the sense that he was in a state of inner tension and both him and his lover went through a rollercoaster of emotions.
The lines To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her stood out to me because they
are so simple yet so powerful. Every word is a monosyllable, nothing fancy or flowery; yet the sense
of loss and loneliness is so clear. This is reiterated by the immense night which became still more
immense without her again he refers back to the night which he did in the beginning and the
distance it creates. This deep sense of loss causes the speaker to write down his thoughts (the
verse falls to the soul like dew to pasture). Here we learn what the speaker does to deal with his loss
and writing is his only response. This may prove as evidence as to why he keeps repeating the
line Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I get the sense that the speaker is writing down his
thoughts as a kind of therapy to deal with his loss and finally accept it.
Towards the end of the poem, the speaker points out the sameness of the nature yet how he and his
lover have changed. He tells himself that he no longer loves her and then says that maybe he does
love her. To me, this means the speaker is in the early stages of dealing with heartbreak, he hasnt
fully accepted it is over almost as if the wounds are still too fresh.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long is quite a chilling line and especially coming from Neruda at
the young age of 20, it shows his maturity and insight as a young poet. In such simplistic language he
evokes a deep sense of heartbreak and you cant help but feel sorry for the speaker.
Themes that I found in the poem include memory and reminiscence, love and passion, heartbreak and
loneliness. Neruda uses personification (the night wind revolves in the sky and sings, my voice tried
to find the wind to touch her hearing), repeated symbols (nightsky), and the repetition of
words/phrases.
I think that the overall purpose or essence of the poem is the painful exercise of forgetting a love and
the range of emotions/thoughts/stages one goes through during the process until one can finally
accept that it is over. But as Neruda said forgetting is so long.
MOOD
Saddest
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1.

color of hope. Gabriel Garca Marquez, Colombian novelist, once

The International Peace Prize in 1950

"the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language"

- Twenty Love Poems and a Song of

--- Crepusculario. Santiago, Ediciones Claridad, 1923.

Veinte poemas de amor y una cancin desesperada. Santiago,

La espada encendida. Buenos Aires, Losada, 1970.

El habitante y su esperanza (1925)

Paginas escogidas de Anatole France (1924)

Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta: Bandido chileno injusticiado en

Residence on Earth (1962)

Winter Garden (1986)

Theme and Mood

Title: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of

The Poem is a free verse and this is appropriate

Juxtaposition in line 27 I no longer love her, but

The realization Neruda has in this poem is that he

Love and Passion

Throughout the poem, the speaker expresses his

Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda

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