Sofia Berg

Mr.Rodriguez & Ms.Lovio

AP Literature

3 December 2021

Love and Passion: An Analysis of Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda, whose birth name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, was born July 12,

1904, in Parral, Chile. His father, José del Carmen Reyes, was a railway worker, and his mother,

Rosa Basoalto, died a month after his birth. As a result of his mother’s death, Neruda’s father

moved their small family to Temuco, Chile, and remarried when Neruda was two years old. He

was enrolled in the Temuco Boy’s School in 1910 and at the age of 10, Neruda began to write

poetry. His father discouraged him from writing and showed very little interest in his poems

(Kuiper). It is assumed this is why he wrote under the name Pablo Neruda and legally adopted it

in 1946. He moved to the Chilean capital, Santiago, in 1921 and published his poems in local

newspapers and magazines there. His first book of poems titled, Crepusculario, was published in

1923. The following year he published his second book, Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción

Desesperada, which was inspired by a woeful love affair and is regarded as one of his best works

to this day (Kuiper).

Neruda was elected a Chilean senator in 1946 and joined the Communist Party. He

campaigned for the leftist candidate, Gabriel González Videla, in the elections held in 1946.

President Videla turned to the right two years later and feeling betrayed, Neruda published a

letter criticizing Videla. As a result, he was expelled from the Senate and went into hiding to

avoid arrest. (Kuiper).

 He was married three times and the first was to Maria Antonieta Haagenaar in 1930.

They had a language barrier as she was Dutch and Indonesian. They separated in 1936 after the

birth of their daughter. His second marriage was with Delia del Carril, an Argentine painter, who

was twenty years older than him. (Explorations). They were married for two decades, although

Neruda was unfaithful for the duration of their marriage. His third and final marriage was to

Matilde Urrutia in 1966. They shared common interests in the arts and he remained married to

Matilde for the rest of his life. (Explorations).

The majority of Pablo Neruda's poetry is inspired by his romantic relationships. In his

works If You Forget Me and Here I Love You, he addresses his poems directly to his partner.

Neruda uses poetry as a way to paint a picture of love and passion for his lover.

If You Forget Me, written around the time of his expulsion, describes Neruda warning his

lover what will happen if she forgets him while he is gone. To begin the poem, Neruda presents a

loving and romantic picture for his lover, reminding her of how much he loves her. However,

towards the middle of the poem, his tone shifts and begins to threaten that if she stops loving

him, his love for her will be gone as well. The tone in the last stanza of the poem goes back to

the upbeat, romantic tone that is present in the first section of the poem by telling his lover that if

she continues to love him, he will love her forever in return. This poem highlights how intense

and unstable love can be.

The first stanza of the poem is only one thought, “I want you to know one thing,” which

appears to be a continuation of the title. Therefore, it can be read as “If you forget me, I want you

to know one thing.” Reading the opening of the poem like this creates a menacing tone to the

poem. However, the tone quickly changes in the second stanza. Neruda’s rhetoric highlights the

beauty of nature in this stanza by referring to the “crystal moon at the red branch” (line 5). In
poetry, the mention of flames indicates passion and he does exactly that with his mention of

“fire” (line 8). He refers to his senses when he says “if I look” (line 4) and “if I touch” (line 7),

which tells his lover that whatever he sees or touches reminds him of her. The personification of

“everything” (the previously mentioned moon, branch, and fire) in “everything carries me to

you” (line 11) adds to this idea as well.

While the start of the poem is extremely romantic and passionate, the middle portion

serves as a warning to Neruda’s lover. The third stanza offers an ultimatum to his partner

cautioning that if she stops loving him, he will do the same. The following stanza continues that

thought. Neruda’s diction in the last line of the stanza is particularly interesting: “I shall already

have forgotten you” (line 23). He wants his partner to know that he was the one who forgot first

if she falls out of love with him. It appears important to him that she knows that he is just as

capable of detaching himself from the relationship. The fifth stanza again threatens his partner.

Should she, “decide to leave me at the shore” (line 28), he will, “on that day, at that hour…seek

another land” (lines 31, 32, and 35). Neruda uses the shore and land as metaphors to inform his

lover of implied consequences. The speaker yet again wants to display his dominance in the

relationship by letting his partner know that he would have no problem finding another woman

to replace her.

In the final stanza of If You Forget Me, Neruda changes his tone once again, returning to

the passionate tone from the beginning of the poem. The first line consists of a single word:

“But.” The use of this coordinating conjunction signifies to the readers that the remaining stanza

of the poem will contrast to what was previously said. The speaker is describing what would

happen if she no longer loved him and threatens to do the same with ease but clarifies that he

will continue to passionately love her if she loves him the same. Neruda uses fire as a metaphor
to describe his relationship with his beloved: “my love feeds on your love” (line 46) and it can

only be extinguished if her love for him dies. The poem is closed by the speaker promising to

continue to love her as long as she lives and to nurture the love that they have for each other.

In his poem Here I love You, Neruda creates a sense of longing as he is far from his lover

and trying to keep their love alive despite the challenge of their distance. He attempts to send

messages through nature and the sea in order to let her know that he is always thinking of her.

The poem shifts from love and hope, to sadness as Neruda begins to believe that she is slowly

forgetting him. This poem comes from Neruda’s “20 Poemas de Amor y Una Canción

Desesperada,” published in 1924.

In Here I love You, Neruda restates the title in the first line of the poem. The use of

single-syllable words within his first sentence shows that Neruda wants to make his love obvious

and easy to understand. Throughout the rest of the first stanza, Neruda adds the first of many

images of nature to the poem. The “dark pines” (line 2) add an element of mystery and also a

sense of sadness --“dark” being related to something hidden and possibly upsetting. To combat

this sinister image, Neruda describes the moon as “glow(ing) like phosphorous” (line 3) and the

reference of shimmering light on the water creates a contrast to the darkness from the second

line. The natural imagery continues as he writes, “the snow unfurls in dancing figures” (line 5).

The personification of “snow” adds a sense of magic to the poem. Neruda is trying to utilize the

beauty of nature as a way to send his message to his beloved. The renewed repetition of “high”

in, “high, high stars” (line 7), creates a feeling of suggesting that his lover is beyond touch, out of

his grasp, and a great ways away. This sense of isolation is intensified in the final line of the

second stanza with the single word “alone” (line 9). The sharp ending of the stanza further

promotes Neruda’s feeling of desolation.

 The melancholic ambiance of the poem is continued in the third stanza, the shortest

stanza, which only contains images of his loneliness. As he wakes up all by his lonesome, his

“soul is wet” (line 10). Neruda is constantly drowning in sadness and desire for his beloved.

Longing for his lover, the sense of distance is brought up once again with the obstacle of “the

sea” (line 11), which becomes an image of how especially divided the two lovers are. The

perpetual echo of the lapping waves, “sounds and resounds” (line 11) bears the sense of the

permanent sea separating them. Neruda uses the double repetition of “Here I love you” (lines 13

and 14) to reiterate his deep affection towards his lover at the beginning of the fourth stanza.

Although the “horizon hides you” (line 14), symbolizing the large distance between the lovers,

Neruda is utterly dedicated to his beloved and wants her to know that he loves her now, and will

continue to love her. This understanding of absolute devotion is shown in the line, “I love you

still among these cold things” (line 15). Neruda describes his displacement from his partner as

“cold,” once again emphasizing the loneliness that he is feeling. He makes it clear that despite

“these cold things,” he is committed to loving her and will not stop doing so. A slight shift

occurs in this stanza as well. Neruda moves back to a more doubtful and anxious voice. He is

worried that his kisses “cross the sea towards no arrival” (line 17). He becomes doubtful that she

knows he is continuously thinking of her. He is afraid of being forgotten by his beloved, “like

those old anchors” (line 18), rusted and neglected.

In the fifth stanza, Neruda is consumed by his fear: “my life grows tired, hungry to no

purpose” (line 20), the sadness becoming a central point of the poem. He acknowledges that “I

love what I do not have” (line 21), referring to the great distance between himself and his lover,

as well as their inability to communicate. This sense of hopelessness is raised by the repeated

thought on the same line, “you are so far.” The distance is too much for Neruda, causing him to
fear fading into the past; becoming a memory. However, the closing lines of the stanza bring

Neruda’s mindset toward something more positive. He knows that they are far, but in the “night”

(line 23) they both will be encountering the same “stars” (line 25), having a bond despite the

distance. “Night” becomes a picture of happiness, as it “comes and starts to sing” (line 23) to the

poet. Neruda gains hope again, displaying natural imagery that imitates the first stanza to

maintain the regaining of his confidence. Although he cannot physically be with his lover, they

can remain connected through memory and nature. The concluding line of the poem connects the

idea that Neruda will continue to show his love to his partner through nature, coming together in

a symphonic moment in which both the speaker and the “leaves” (line 27) wish to “sing your

name” (line 27). The pines and the stars show their support to the isolated lovers in their

commitment to loving each other.

Overall, Neruda’s style can be distinguished by his tonal shifts, natural imagery, and use

of figurative language. In both If You Forget Me and Here I Love You, his tone begins as positive

and passionate. In the middle and with almost no warning, his tone shifts to something sadder

and more longing, and by the end, his tone is back to confident and loving. Neruda uses longer

and cohesive lines when his tone is cheerful compared to his short and choppy lines when his

tone is somber.

His additions of natural symbolism and metaphorical language help him send messages to

his lover. In If You Forget Me, he says that nature “carries” him to his lover (line 11), and in

Here I Love You, his “loathing wrestles” (line 22) with the stars because they can see his love

while he cannot. By personifying nature in both poems, he is able to make it seem like nature is

physically assisting him in sending a message to his beloved. Not only does he use nature to
communicate with his lover, but also to stay connected. In Here I Love You, Neruda adds how at

night, they are looking at the same stars, therefore they are looking at each other (line 25).

Neruda’s poetry is the epitome of romance with his recurring references to nature and

lovesick tones. In many of his poems, all he can describe is his longing to be with his lover.

Pablo Neruda’s use of shifting tones, beautiful imagery, and figurative language make his poems

extremely addicting to read because they transport his readers to a place saturated with love and

emotion.
 Works Cited

Explorations, Southern. “Pablo in Love.” Southern Explorations, 2014,

https://www.southernexplorations.com/pablo-love.

“Here I Love You by Pablo Neruda.” By Pablo Neruda - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. -

All Poetry, https://allpoetry.com/Here-I-Love-You.

“If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda.” By Pablo Neruda - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. -

All Poetry, https://allpoetry.com/If-You-Forget-Me.

Kuiper, Kathleen. “Pablo Neruda.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pablo-Neruda.