Analyzing Neruda's Poems

“And it was at that age . . . Poetry arrived in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river.

I don't know how or when,” Neruda (1964).

It is easy from the rhythm and form of these lines to realize that he did not go looking for a way to express himself, it came to him. He does not know where or how or when, just that suddenly, it was there. The meaning of these lines is clear by the way that the lines are punctuated and how the words lay down in the lines.

The poem is quite formal in diction, using words that portray strong images and emotions, such as “deciphering” rather than just saying figuring it out. I believe that this more elegant and formal way of speaking is part of what gives it such a clear and noticeable tone. The formal style of writing also gives the reader a sense that this poet is

Neruda’s use of alliteration in lines such as “something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings,” and “planets, palpitating plantations, shadow perforated,” Neruda (1964) deeply impact the reader, only adding to the intensity of their meaning and keeping one’s attention focused on the depths to which this experience touched him. A brilliant style of writing, if you ask me. Assonance is also in this piece, found in lines such as the long “I” in the lines “deciphering that fire and I wrote the first faint line,” Neruda (1964). These literary tools among many others create such an seductive flow, the rhythm is smooth but the tone is so intense that the contrast creates the perfect image of what he is feeling and engrains those very same emotions with the reader as those who enter the world of Pablo Neruda read this