Neruda's Poema 12 - Refreshing Sentiments

I found Neruda’s Poema 12 to be a refreshing contrast to the lustful, objectifying tendencies displayed in some of his earlier poetry (particularly in Poema 1 of Veinte poemas de amor). Poema 12 revealed a genuine desire for a deeper connection with the narrator’s beloved. The opening two lines “Para mi Corazon basta tu pecho, / Para tu libertad bastan mis alas” created an atmosphere of intimacy, acceptance and unity; a very positive first impression for the reader upon entering the poem. I found these two lines very beautiful in their simplicity and their sentimentality.

The progression from Poema 1 to Poema 12, for me, almost displays a development of character; a deepening of emotion and expansion of perspective (if we are to assume that the poems are told from the same narrator/perspective). This narrator is in search of a higher satisfaction, a higher sense of pleasure which can not be attained from mere sexual gratification. I really enjoyed the fact that at no point in the poem did the narrator focus on the superficial aspects of the woman on which he doted. As opposed to Poema 1, where the female body was objectified and praised for its physical, sexualized attributes, the narrator in Poema 12 addressed his beloved’s soul, her liberty, her singing voice, her free spirit and her quiet, reserved nature. Her chest was mentioned in an entirely non-sexual context, only as the vessel for his heart. Whereas the emphasis in Poema 1 was on the “cuerpo de mujer, blancas colinas, muslos blancos, [y…] vasos del pecho,” the woman in Poema 12 is described in affectionate, sentimental, romantic and nostalgic terms. She is fondly compared to the coziness of an old road, dew drops on flowers. She is likened to the pines and masts for their gentle singing in the wind. The tone achieved in this poem was calm, serene, romantic and relaxing, even though it was a story of a somewhat conflicted relationship.

As usual, the imagery was stunningly beautiful. I particularly enjoyed the image of the woman undermining the horizon with her absence, eternally in flight like the waves. Like many of his Neruda’s poems, Poema 12 revolved around an enchanting female whose distance and reservations prevented a fulfilling emotional and spiritual connection with her. It was, however, devoid of the sexual frustration and consequent bitterness displayed in some of his other poems.

I feel as though Neruda, master of personification, used the sleeping birds to represent the dormant nature of her soul. I took the ending of the poem to be a positive, somewhat uplifting statement. I saw the migration of the birds that were sleeping in her soul as an awakening, a coming to life, a release from the conflicted absence and reservations that plagued their relationship. Did anyone else interpret the end of the poem this way?

“Neruda is like catching a condor with a butterfly net…”

His passionate volatility has been likened to that of a volcano, his magnificence to that of a condor, the invaluable nature of his contributions to those of a rainforest. The vivacious, energetic, larger-than-life quality of Pablo Neruda’s poetry is truly unparalleled and a close critical analysis of some of his most intricately chosen words reveals some very interesting conclusions about his conflicted narrator’s underlying sentiments.

I found it interesting that Karl Ragnar Gierow’s Presentation Speech upon Pablo Neruda’s acceptance of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature focused largely on the notion of ideals. Ideals and the tragic human tendency to idealize the objects of our most basic human desires is a topic that pervades much of Neruda’s conflicted poetry. Poema 1, of Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada, reveals Neruda’s narrator’s tragic tendency to idealize the female human being, and more specifically her body.

The high flown language used to describe the feminine sex – not a woman specifically, but rather women in general (“cuerpo de mujer”) – quite frankly begins to sound more suited for the description of a statue of a Greek goddess than of the living female form. She is described in romanticized tones and shades of pure white which purify and almost deify her saintly body, while simultaneously being sexualized with descriptions of her sensual voice, her abundant bosom and rosy pubic region. By putting women on a pedestal and allowing his imagination to create a vision of femininity that does not coincide with reality, Neruda’s narrator reveals his fatal flaw.

An interesting experiment conducted in Tuesday’s class cut away the intoxicating, flowery language and revealed the artist’s most passionate concealed intentions. Students were charged with the task of choosing the most essential and meaningful word in each of the poem’s sixteen lines and the findings were quite surprising. A poem which appeared upon first glance to be overflowing with beautiful sentiments of love and powerful emotion was laid bare as an expression of sexual frustration and objectification of the female body.

Neruda, a literary wizard by the looks of things, managed to hide the bitterness and somewhat shallow desires behind the guise of feigned affection and intimacy until we extracted the most crucial words from Poema 1: mujer, entrega, labriego, saltar, túnel, invasión, sobrevivir, flecha, venganza, cuerpo, ausencia, triste, cuerpo, sed, sigue, and dolor.

The atmosphere which resulted from this dilution of Neruda’s words was one of aggravation, conflict, struggle, and war; one of conquests and reluctant submissions to the will of an aggressor; one of superficiality and bodily objectification; one of vengeance, sadness and pain. These words were in many ways reminiscent of a rape; sexual gratification motivated not by love but by desire or simple lust. I would very much like to apply this experiment to other poems of Neruda’s to determine whether I have missed out on any other vastly different interpretations of his layered works.

Disclaimer: I love Neruda. He is probably my favourite Latin American poet. My intention is in no way to portray him as some kind of rapist or sexual deviant. I just thoroughly enjoy analyzing his brutally honest, multi-layered poetry the fullest extent and was exceedingly intrigued by the results of our in-class experiment!!

Veinte poemas de amor... por Pablo Neruda

I genuinely enjoyed reading Neruda’s poetry, even more so than that of Mistral, whose words I found to be very moving. I was pleased to see many correlations between the poetry of Mistral and Neruda. I don’t know whether the similarities stem from their Chilean roots or whether these two poets simply share similar passions, but both poets were able to move me deeply with their allusions to the elements and their heartfelt praise for the natural world. My favourites of all Neruda’s poems were Poema 4, Poema 5 and Poema 6.

I found Poema 4, an allusion to wind, to be beautifully descriptive. I loved Neruda’s ability to personify natural forces as if he were talking about a passionate lover or fellow human being. His description of the wind, “buzzing between the trees, orchestral and divine, like a language full of wars and of songs” was deeply emotional. Neruda does not simply state facts as facts. His romantic perspective pervades all of his poetry, as he compares a phenomenon commonplace as wind to a tempestuous morning in the heart of summer. Neruda’s ability to make even trash blowing in the wind sound like romantic poetry is dumbfounding.

I found Poema 5 to be sophisticated in its level of metatextuality. Reflexive in nature, the poem comments on the poet’s words, slowly wasting away as we read the very words of which he speaks. The imagery of words thinning and slowly fading away like the footprints of seagulls on the beach was beautiful. Neruda’s use of repetition of a line from the beginning of the poem, near the ending helped to give his poetry a cyclical quality. It seems as though we end back at the point where we began as he emphasizes: “todo lo llenas tú, todo lo llenas” and “todo lo ocupas tú, todo lo ocupas.”

Poema 5 was my very favourite of all the poems. The imagery achieved was truly breathtaking. Rich, fiery colours of rust, auburn, red, gold and grey came to mind with every image Neruda described: boina gris, crepúsculo, hojas de otoño, hoguera, sed ardiente, brasas y humo.” The images produced an atmosphere of autumn, of nature dying to make way for rebirth, but its rich palette was also reminiscent of fire and ash, which also fits with the cycle of destruction and rebirth. The figurative burning of unquenchable desires was a common theme that ran throughout the poem as Neruda described his deeply passionate love for an unknown woman. My favourite lines of the poem were "Y las hojas caían en el agua de tu alma" and "Y caían mis besos alegres como brasas," strictly because of their beauty. I feel as though the colours, the imagery, the similes of the poem effectively combine to produce the image of an intensely fiery, passionate, attractive woman.

I found Neruda’s Poema 9 to be both interesting and fairly sexually suggestive. It sounded to me as one extended metaphor for sexual desire and glorified male gratification. The images at the beginning of the poem were reminiscent of a day of surfing, but definitely appeared to possess a double meaning. I found this to be his most bold and blatantly sexual poem. Did anyone else feel this way?

Madre Bisoja

I definitely found this week’s readings to be both more challenging and time-consuming. I did, however, continue to love reading Gabriela Mistral’s emotional, moving poetry. The sections “Locas Mujeres” and “Vagabundajes” revealed an even wider variety of religious beliefs and creation stories than previously observed in “Cuenta-Mundo.” Not only is the balance between indigenous spirituality and Catholicism valued by Mistral, but a strong knowledge of classical mythology is also revealed in “Locas Mujeres.” References to strong figures of ancient Greece abound – Antigone, Gaia, Electra, Castor and Pollux. Mistral’s adherence to classical mythology does, however, continue to be interspersed with biblical references to Jesus Christ, David, Raphael and Cain.

Mistral’s maternal instincts also continued to pervade her poetry throughout “Locas Mujeres,” as did her constant reverence for the natural world. I found “Madre Bisoja” to be a particularly pleasing read, both for its eloquence and for the beautiful classical myths it reminds me of. Gaia is a truly beautiful and empowering female figure in classical mythology and Mistral’s representation brought new beauty to her story.

There is an atmosphere of feminine empowerment in Mistral’s poetry, as she portrays Gaia, the earth mother, with such love, reverence, and awe. She represents the Earth in an exceedingly selfless manner, as a lone shepherd, bearing all creatures, allowing none to fall from her wide lap:

A todas las criaturas

soportó en rodillas anchas

y rebosando, ninguna

se le cayó de la falda

I loved the image of a cross-eyed mother, with one black eye and one blue eye, that accounts for the daily alternation between day and night we experience on Earth. I did a bit of research and as far as I can tell, this detail was of Mistral’s invention. Mistral’s personification or attribution of a scientifically justifiable truth to the individual qualities of a mythological figure is quite classical in nature.

La poesía de Gabriela Mistral

He disfrutado leyendo la poesía de Gabriela Mistral, especialmente "La Tierra." Mis otro favoritos selecciones son “El Aire,” “Carro del Cielo” y “El Arco-Iris.” Su interpretación del ambiente es muy bonito y emocionante. Ella tiene un profundo respeto por la tierra en la que ella es tan privilegiada para vivir. El estilo de Mistral es muy maternal, muy cariñoso. Su poesía exuda afecto. La voz narrativa de su poesía es sin duda una de una educadora. A menudo hay una invocación a un niño, a veces un hijo a quien imparte su sabiduría sobre la tierra.

Sentí una conexión fuerte con la tierra y la naturaleza, que podría derivarse de sus raíces mestizas. Me encanta que el poema enfatiza una conexión física con la tierra. Mistral alienta postración con la intención de acercar al lector a rebajarse al nivel de la tierra para obtener una experiencia más amplia de los sentidos. El énfasis en el placer derivado de sonido y el sentimiento revela su alta valoración de la simplicidad. El hecho de que el final de "La Tierra" enfatiza la conexión espiritual entre las personas y la tierra revela el amplio alcance de su fe. Me parece interesante que Mistral representa su linaje indígena tan firmemente en "La Tierra" y se adhiere con tanta devoción a la fe católica en "La Casa".