The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

by Pablo Neruda, Ilan Stavans (Editor)

Like new copy

Genres: Poetry

996 pages, Library Binding

Published June 13, 2008

About the author

Pablo Neruda, born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in 1904 in Parral, Chile, was a poet, diplomat, and politician, widely considered one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century. From an early age, he showed a deep passion for poetry, publishing his first works as a teenager. He adopted the pen name Pablo Neruda to avoid disapproval from his father, who discouraged his literary ambitions. His breakthrough came with Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, 1924), a collection of deeply emotional and sensual poetry that gained international recognition and remains one of his most celebrated works.
Neruda’s career took him beyond literature into diplomacy, a path that allowed him to travel extensively and engage with political movements around the world. Beginning in 1927, he served in various consular posts in Asia and later in Spain, where he witnessed the Spanish Civil War and became an outspoken advocate for the Republican cause. His experiences led him to embrace communism, a commitment that would shape much of his later poetry and political activism. His collection España en el corazón (Spain in Our Hearts, 1937) reflected his deep sorrow over the war and marked a shift toward politically engaged writing.
Returning to Chile, he was elected to the Senate in 1945 as a member of the Communist Party. However, his vocal opposition to the repressive policies of President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla led to his exile. During this period, he traveled through various countries, including Argentina, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, further cementing his status as a global literary and political figure. It was during these years that he wrote Canto General (1950), an epic work chronicling Latin American history and the struggles of its people.
Neruda’s return to Chile in 1952 marked a new phase in his life, balancing political activity with a prolific literary output. He remained a staunch supporter of socialist ideals and later developed a close relationship with Salvador Allende, who appointed him as Chile’s ambassador to France in 1970. The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized for the scope and impact of his poetry. His later years were marked by illness, and he died in 1973, just days after the military coup that overthrew Allende. His legacy endures, not only in his vast body of work but also in his influence on literature, political thought, and the cultural identity of Latin America.

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neruda's poetry has always been one that I stop and read, obviously I know the twenty love poems and poem of despair the best since I own a slim volume of it. I know that he wrote plenty about politics and government but wanted to expand my knowledge of other poetry that he had written so this thick tome of poetry, including sometimes the Spanish version and pulled from many different volumes with a few English translations too, this was helpful in knowing more about his work as a whole.

I was surprised by the range! And my new favorites are his Odes! And "Guilty" and I want to now borrow The Book of Questions at some point that he wrote between 1971-1973. This is part of my deeper dives into things I've loved to know and explore more.

"'Only Death' There are long cemeteries, / tombs filled with soundless bones, / the heart passing through a tunnel / dark, dark, dark; / like a shipwreck we die inward, / like smothering in our hearts, / like slowly falling from our skin down to our soul. // There are corpses, / there are feet of sticky, cold gravestone, / there is death in the bones, / like a pure sound, / like a bark without a dog, / coming from certain bells, from certain tombs, / growing in the dampness like teardrops or raindrops. // I see alone, at times, / coffins with sails / weighing anchor with pale corpses, with dead-tressed women, / with bakers white as angels, / with pensive girls married to notaries, / coffins going up the vertical river of the dead, / the dark purple river, / upstream, with the sails swollen by the sound of death, / swollen by the silent sound of death. // To resonance comes death / like a show without a foot, like a suit without a man, / she comes to knock with a stoneless and fingerless ring, / she comes to shout without mouth, without tongue, without throat. / Yet her steps sound / and her dress sounds, silent, like a tree. // I know little, I am not well acquainted, I can scarcely see, / but I think that her song has the color of moist violets, / of violets accustomed to the earth, / because the face of death is green, / and the gaze of death is green, / with the sharp dampness of a violet leaf / and its dark color of exasperated winter // But death also goes through the world dressed as a broom, / she licks the ground looking for corpses, / death is in the broom, / it is death's tongue looking for dead bodies, / it is death's needle looking for thread. // Death is in the cots: / in the slow mattresses, in the black blankets / she lives stretched out, and she suddenly blows: / she blows a dark sound that puffs out sheets, / and there are beds sailing to a port / where she is waiting, dressed as an admiral."

"Here are the bread- the wine- the table- the house: / a man's needs, and a woman's, and a life's. / Peace whirled through and settled in this place: / the common fire burned, to make this light."

[Marcia Van Camp]

I read many poems but not every poem, we read some for book club and his odes to things like artichokes and things were interesting to read

[syona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that
Pablo
....

marry me?