When I first started reading the poems, I noticed the emphasis he created on his lover’s physical body. At first I expected the poems to maintain this focus, but as I continued reading, his descriptions of her became more about her eyes (and other less sexual body parts), and being as a whole, and then finally he would create metaphors about the memory of her. Throughout his poems, the metaphors were very diverse in topic but usually kept a theme of nature. I really enjoyed his metaphors of his lover to inanimate objects found in nature, especially after listening to the video lecture on Neruda, as it highlights his objectivity of women. Rather than comparing her to animals or feelings, he usually compares her to plants, rivers, or embers.<\/p>\n
His comparison of her to embers and rivers intrigued me the most. I found it very interesting that Neruda would use contrasting imagery to express the same feeling, such as objects like fire, embers, and heat to express his passion, but at the same time mentioning rivers, water, and wetness as an expression of passion. Neruda takes advantage of the suggestive nature the reader has on how his metaphors are interpreted, and seems to know that we can make connections between passion and wetness OR heat.<\/p>\n
This idea extends beyond his metaphors of passion, as he often writes about a concept as a compliment to its opposite, rather than as a contrast. This is primarily in the first half of his poems, where he talks about sadness and death as compliments to her impact on him even when most poetic writers would describe their love as providing happiness and life. It certainly adds to Neruda’s style, making it more distinct in a way I normally wouldn’t think of.<\/p>\n
Poem 20 and the song of despair talk about sinking, love being in the past, but with her memory as enveloping him<\/p>\n
When it comes to Neruda’s last few poems, I like to think of his theme surrounding sinking and drowning as directly relating to imagery of\u00a0 rivers and water he used to describe his lover. Even though he says he no longer loves her, he still mentions that her memory stays with him, causing him pain by “drowning” him in the rivers of passion he mentioned in earlier poems. Overall, the flow from poem to poem creates an interesting and dynamic story while still maintaining and utilizing multiple motifs and metaphors that further build off of each other.<\/p>\n
For my question:<\/p>\n
What is the significance of the names of the poems? Are they highlighting the beginning of the poem or is it just easier to name a poem after its first line?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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