Week 3 - Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Nicholas Latimer - On Imagery, Emotion, and Growth

 Reading Neruda’s poems I vision myself in a dream - hovering above the landscapes that he uses to emphasize the raw and vulnerable parts of his female subjects. Although I never really got a good idea of what was going on - the image and metaphors - stars for eyes, skin moss, or firm milk, hills for thighs - were more than enough to set me into a daydream.

In the instance of finding ourselves on an empty pier late at night, with waves crashing and stars twinkling as Neruda uses these landmarks to portray both his loneliness and admiration for the female body - I picture myself drinking this weeks pairing, with an important choice of Empress Gin - the color of the sad, blue-purple of this text’s emotion to combine perfectly with the touch of douglas fir. 

…

To return to the naturalistic imagery of the poetry - and go beyond what Neruda has already given us - I am interested in the idea that - because each one of us has different associations and emotional attachments to nature - each one of us will have a different feeling toward the theme of the text, and possibly different conclusions about what Neruda was feeling at the time of his writings as a seemingly wise young man of 19. 

As I’ve touched on in a recent blog comment - for me, nature has firm emotional valence to solitude. Growing up, I spent many hours outdoors, whether in the backyard, nearby conservation area, or away at summer camp and canoe trips. Much of this time would be filled by wondrous exploring until the sun came down. Looking back - I feel a sense of loneliness when thinking of that time spent alone, despite its paradoxical comfort and beauty. For this - when Neruda uses his expansive metaphors - sending us out to nature and back to reality (where he grieves for a lost lover) - my sympathy is exaggerated by past associations of loneliness. 

On another note - something that occurred to me while nearing the end of the book was how the content shifted away from the descriptives - and more toward the theme of love & loss. Grieving - the poems began to represent almost a “growing up” perspective - whereby Neruda begins to acknowledge his confusion of  ‘she loved me, and sometimes I loved her too’ vs. ‘I loved her, and sometimes she loved me to’. Or ‘I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her’ (From ‘Tonight I Can Write’). These opposing statements, to me exemplified that he no longer felt a need to fixate on thighs, eyes, or breasts - but rather confess to his uncertainty in his feelings. 

Do you think Neruda experienced growth in perspective at the time of his writing these poems?


Comments

  1. Daniel OrizagaJanuary 30, 2023 at 1:32 PM

    Hello Nicholas, I am very interested in your point of view on the subject of Neruda's vision of Nature. I remember reading that the descriptions actually have a location in the Chilean landscape and that Neruda is thinking of specific places, although they are no longer present to him, in the city of Santiago. What are the limits of poetic language to capture Nature? We see it not only filtered through Neruda's bodily experience, but also through a particular state of mind. Does this relationship between Nature and language also have to do with gender?

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  2. AlizeyJanuary 30, 2023 at 2:36 PM

    Hi Nicholas!
    I enjoyed reading your blog post and the idea that you imagined yourself in a dream while reading it, really stood out to me. I am certain that if I had put myself into the same headspace as you, I would view the poems much more differently. Another thing I liked that you pointed out was how everyone has a different attachment to nature, and that can influence how we read and understand Neruda's writing. To answer your question, I do think in a way Neruda grew as a person as he continued to write poems. However, I think he grew in the sense that he fell in love or got into a relationship that changed his perspective, rather than him changing because of his own understanding (if that makes any sense)..

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  3. DaisyFebruary 1, 2023 at 11:55 AM

    Hi Nicholas, I really enjoyed your post. I think it was interesting to hear you bring up the elements of nature that were present throughout and relate it to your days at summer camp. To answer your question, I did sense that he grew a bit throughout the poems. I think that any relationship (romantic or not) is bound to teach you lessons along the way. I felt that towards the end of his poems, he became a little less focused on the "superficial" aspects of his relationship, and shifted his focus to the way she made him feel.

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