It’s true; I’m a sucker for his poetry. I think it would be hard not to like, or even simply appreciate his work, but I’m biased. It may seem to someone that his work is solely devoted to the ideas of love, longing, and loneliness. With this in mind, it seems as though you have to be in love with the idea of love in order to love his work. This isn’t the case for me, as I’m not the biggest fan of poetry specifically about love anyway. Well, poetry about love between two people, because I have come to see that a lot of his odes profess love to simple objects. What I admire most about Neruda is his imagery. The way he can make you feel as though you are right there, whatever it is he may be talking about. Although his description of the human body is impeccable (The Insect), his Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market is just as expressive. His odes take the most mundane of objects (a lemon, ironing, olive-oil…) and break them down into lyric poetry that captivates and can simply leave a reader in awe. The structure of his poetry is also essential to the power behind it. The way in which he breaks up this thoughts, more specifically his words, (example: The Turtle), emphasize his emotional connection with whatever he is musing about. This is similar to the examples of enjambed poetry that we have read for class. I still wish I knew fluent Spanish so I could read Neruda's poetry in its rawest form, although I hope the translations do him justice. For now I’ll continue to reread translation after translation hoping I get the full effect.
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Your description of Neruda's poems makes me want to read them. I like how you explain the power of his poetry. I am excited to discover his power for myself. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Brynn that your description and love for Neruda made me want to read his work. After reading two of the poems you posted I would agree that is work deserves a degree of appreciation (i especially liked ode to a large tuna). I do, however, feel as though I am missing out on something reading his work in translation. I find this issue with many poets I am reading in translation where I do not feel that direct connect with the poet because someone has come inbetween, for translation purposes, and tainted it to a degree. It must be a hard job to translate poetry. Thank you for sharing.
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