Neruda, Pablo (Vol. 1) - Neruda, Pablo 1904–

Neruda, Pablo 1904–

Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 19-20.)

Neruda knows that only by holding his own identity in abeyance can he hope to see clearly and to accommodate the lives around him. Yet he finds that such vulnerability destroys him; it opens the floodgates to chaos. Sounds wrinkle him and objects pass through him. He is a phantom, a man without qualities, invaded by stones, wool, elevators, gardens, and eyeglasses. Everything that strikes his senses penetrates to his heart. A man grows tired of being a man when his life becomes the fruitless attempt to assert his endurance in a world where nothing endures and all are subject to the same lawlessness….

In the poetry following Residencia en la tierra, we find a sharp change in Neruda's purpose and direction. In spite of his promise to undertake the sorrows of all men, the despair of these poems remains a personal one. Both his...

[The entire page is 1387 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass