Informative Speech Outline

Name: Jazmin Betancourt

Topic: The life and works of Pablo Neruda.
Specific Purpose: After hearing my speech my audience will be informed about the life and
works of poet Pablo Neruda.
Thesis: Today we will be talking about the amazing and extraordinary life of Pablo Neruda. We
will be explore some of his poetry. We will also look at his political role as a poet.
Organizational pattern: Topical
INTRODUCTION
I. Attention getter: “I have always wanted the hands of the people to be seen in poetry. I
have always preferred a poetry where the fingerprints show. A poetry of loam, where
water can sing. A poetry of bread, where everyone may eat.” Pablo Neruda wrote this in
1966. In the book called The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, Ilan Stavans took all of
Neruda's’ poetry written in Spanish and translated it to English. Ilan Stavans wrote that
Neruda connected with the masses and this made him a voice for the voiceless.
II. Reason to listen: Poetry is a beautiful art that is often forgotten and today I will introduce
to some of you for the first time to an amazing poet. Pablo Neruda is a renowned
international poet but sometimes he is not very known in the USA because of his political
background.
III. Speaker Credibility: Since young I have always loved poetry. I was introduced to Pablo
Neruda when I was in sixth grade. I have read collections of Neruda's poetry and
biographies about his life. As a Latina and Spanish speaker he quickly became my
favorite poet as he is an international poet and had a great passion for social justice.
IV. Today we will be talking about the extraordinary life story of Pablo Neruda, his life as
poet and his legacy in government and social justice.

Transition: Let's start with the early life of Pablo Neruda.

I. Pablo Neruda’s early life started in Chile in a city called Parral on July 12th of 1904. His
official name when born was Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto.
A. His parents were Rosa Basoalto de Reyes and Jose del Carmen Reyes Morales.
1. In the biography written about him called Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life written
by Adam Feinstein we learn that Neruda’s mother was a schoolteacher who died a
month later after giving birth to him because of tuberculosis.
2. Neruda’s father, Jose Del Carmen Reyes Morales was a railroad conductor and he
had a small vine business that didn't give much profit.
B. Chile was in political unrest when Neruda was growing up. Chile also had huge social
division between poor and rich and education wasn’t very important in his little town of
Parral.
1. His father invested in Pablo’s education because he believed that his son might have
a chance in life if he had education. His father didn’t want his son to sacrifice his
studies for poetry. His father considered poetry such a bohemian activity for a career.
2. The tension between father and son become so hurtful that in October 1920 he
changed his name to Pablo Neruda, at the age of 16. He didn’t changed it officially
until December 1946.
3. He attempted to gain independence from father and used it so his father wouldn’t
criticize his works.
 Transition; Pablo’s early life was hard because of his issues with his father and also
the economic and political turmoil that was happening at that time. Now we will
explore some of his poetry.

II. In the biography written by David Goodnough called Pablo Neruda- Nobel Prize Winning
Poet, David writes that Pablo’s life as a poet began when he was young. In the biography
that Adam Feinstein also wrote about Pablo, he mentions that Neruda was a ravenous
reader and a poet since young according to old poems he wrote to his stepmother when he
was 10 years old.
C. In March 1921, when he was 16 years old he moved to Santiago, the capital of Chile to
go to college. He was studying to be a French teacher but continued to write poetry. In
1923 he sold all of his possessions to finance his first book called Book of Twilights.
D. Next year he found a publisher for his book called 20 Poems of Love and a Song of
Despair. The book made Neruda a celebrity. At 20 years old he gave up his studies to
devote himself to his poetry. His father cut him financially and their relationship was
strained until his father death.
1. His book received so much attention in Latin America, not only among poets but the
larger public who usually did not read poetry. Young people recited his lines to one
another, such unforgettable lines of one of his poetry in 20 poems of love and a song
of despair says, “Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.” (Love is so short, and
forgetting is so long.)
2. By the end of his life, his poetical complete works make up three volumes totaling
3,552 pages.

Transition: Now that we have discussed his life as a poet we shall explore his political
role though his role of a politician and poet go hand-in-hand.

III. Since he was in college Neruda was active in the political world. In World War 1 Chile
natural resources were used for the manufacture of explosives, but now that war was over
many factories were closing and with war ending came an economic depression, gap
between poor and rich became greater. Neruda and his college friends tried helping by
demanding equal rights and fair employment practices. Neruda wrote articles for
antigovernment journals and joined in demonstrations. Neruda wrote that since those days
politics became part of his poetry.
E. According to David Goodnough, in the biography he wrote about Pablo, in 1927
Neruda began his long career as a diplomat in the Latin American Tradition of honoring
poets with diplomat assignments. At 23 years of age he took his first diplomat position in
Rangoon, Burma.
1. Some of the positions he held were Consul of Spanish Immigration, Consul of
Chile in Argentina, and Consul General in Mexico, Senator of Chile's republic,
Chilean Ambassador to France, and a nomination for Chile's president.
2. He won the International Peace Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature, the Lenin Peace
Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize.
3. Neruda, an active member of the Communist Party, died 12 days after the
dictator General Augusto Pinochet took over Chile’s elected Socialist
government, in a bloody coup (ku). Pinochet Killed the President and arrested all
the old president's supporters and turned Chile into a military dictatorship. Many
of Neruda’s friends were executed or simply disappeared. Neruda died of a heart
attack on September 23, 1973.
4. Today he is recognized as Chile’s greatest poet. His poetry remained till the end
laced with the hope of change for his people. Not just Chileans but for every
 Latino. Many Latino nations were still fighting for justice from their own
oppressive governments and from invasion from unwanted rich countries.
5. David Goodnough wrote that Neruda was a passionate man who led a life full of
controversy and romance. And was at the center of some of the greatest events
of the twentieth century; like most artist he had his weaknesses but these add to
his achievements. After all of his politics and personal loves, and hates are
forgotten, he will remain a poet who wrote about what mattered to him. He
started as a writer of love poems. After his experiences with Spain’s civil war he
became a public and political poet, speaking out against the injustices of his time.
He remained a great Chilean poet describing the beauty of the world around.

In conclusion today we learned about the amazing and extraordinary life of Pablo Neruda. We
explored some of his poetry and we also looked at his political role as a poet.
Pablo’s last poem was called Final-final and it was written just before his death. It was
dedicated to his wife but it can be meant for anyone. Fue tan bello vivir, cuando vivías.
(It was so good to live when you lived!) I hoped you enjoyed learning a bit about a great
poet).