Pablo Neruda

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What does the line "I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps" mean in "Love Sonnet XI" by Pablo Neruda?

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In "Love Sonnet XI" by Pablo Neruda, the meaning of the line "I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps" could be that the speaker is actively looking for his beloved so that he can see them walking. In fact, they don't so much walk as glide, as evidenced by the use of the expression "liquid measure." It's almost as if they flow through the streets.

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This particular line from Neruda's "Love Sonnet XI" is an expression of the deep desire that the speaker has for the object of his affection. In an already intense, passionate poem, the line stands out for its exaltation of love and the profound affect it has upon the human heart.

Everything about this beloved beguiles and entrances the speaker. He cannot live without them and is impatient for their presence. Indeed, he is so completely love-sick that bread does not nourish him, and even the dawn, which ordinarily he would doubtless greet with joy, disrupts his day.

As he cannot be without his love, the speaker "hunts" them, prowling through the streets in search of the "liquid measure" of their steps. These words seem to suggest something about the way this person walks; it's almost as if they flow through the streets like a river. Clearly, this is no ordinary...

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individual we are dealing with here; they are very special to the speaker.

They also appear to be something of a force of nature, hence the reference to the "liquid measure" of their steps. We can see this later on in the poem when the speaker refers to the "sunbeam flaring" in their love's lovely body.

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The line in question, "I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps," is the final line of the first stanza. In the previous line, the speaker indicates that he hunts for his love's steps "all day." This, in combination with the word "hunt," suggests that he pursues his love, obsessively and tirelessly, because he hopes eventually to catch up with them, or, alternatively, because he feels closer to his love by following in their footsteps. The word "hunt" also, together with the word "prowl," used earlier in the stanza, lends a rather sinister and animalistic tone to the speaker's love. These words suggest that his love is instinctual and necessary. The animalistic connotations also imply that there is something ferocious and violent in the speaker's feelings for his love.

The speaker refers to his love's footsteps metaphorically as "the liquid measures." This rather unusual metaphor implies that his love's footsteps are somehow still moving, as liquid moves with any vibration. His love's footsteps are not settled or static, and perhaps the overall implication is that wherever his love goes seems, even after they have gone, to shimmer and ripple with life. The suggestion is that his love has an energy and a vibrancy and that this energy and vibrancy is so abundant as to spill into the places through which he or she passes.

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