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Treatment of love in Pablo Neruda's poem
Treatment of love in Pablo Neruda's poem
Treatment of love in Pablo Neruda's poem
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"The ‘Fickle’ One"?
On his birthday in July of 1954, Pablo Neruda confessed to the University of Chile that "it is worthwhile to have struggled and sung, it is worthwhile to have lived because I have loved" (Neruda 331). In nearly all of his works, Neruda attests to the simplicity, valor, and importance of love, whether for country, "common things," or another human being. Throughout South America, he was known as "un poeta del pueblo," a poet of the people, and his talent for composing such passionate verses propelled him to Nobel Laureate status. In a collection published in 1972, he exemplifies his mastery of language by entwining his own passionate love life with an admiration for nature, producing realistic, yet mystical expressions of devotion. In "The Fickle One," the author creates a paradox confirming that the persona’s sincere affection transcends the physical attraction and lust by which he initially appears imprisoned. Furthermore, Neruda presents an opposition by dividing the poem into parallel halves, demanding that even the receptive reader peruse the poem more than once to discern the genuine meaning of the experience that the text conveys.
Neruda, with much attention to detail and manipulation of language, demonstrates the persona’s inability to control his human, sexual nature, causing the reader to disapprove of him. By stating, "My eyes went away from me," he conjures a persona with eyes that are disconnected from the rest of his body, as though they are a separate entity, acting against the will of the brain, bones, and heart. Seemingly, he desires all the females that pass by him. He gazes longingly at each woman while absorbing all their physical details, corroborating the notion that the only qualitie...
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...eruda accentuates the persona’s eternal faithfulness to the third female. The persona, though he may be fickle in his thoughts and cravings, is steadfast in this fidelity. In fact, the persona’s unflinching integrity lends irony to the title of the poem. His flaws are those of the common man, yet he proves the maturity of his affection by honestly admitting his shortcomings. His true love is the paramount interest in his life, and it is through the characterization of the persona in "The Fickle One" that Neruda demonstrates that the struggle that is love makes life worthwhile.
Works Cited
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Neruda, Pablo. Passions and Impressions. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1984.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 348-350. Print.
How emotion may exist in a studious and solemn man, having only acquired knowledge of books for a score of years, seems impossible. But desire for Esmeralda arrived after Frollo had “discovered that a man needs affection ...
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
Paley, Grace. "Samuel." Literature for Composition: Essay, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th ed. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Longman, 2001. 190-192
Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol A. New York: W.
...rs love, he throws off his nihilism. Through this action, the novel condemns nihilism as empty.
Kennedy, X J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Sixth ed. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1995. Print.
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology: American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.
Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds.” Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama and The Essay.4th e. Ed. Frank Madden. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 253-261. Print.
Pablo Picasso, a man with no inspirational limits, which has been portrayed throughout his art pieces. He was not only an amazing influential artist, Picasso was also a peace advocate. He brought new techniques and styles to the world of modern art. Political views and his desire for peace were shown throughout many of his now very famous pieces of artwork. Pablo Picasso influenced the world by changing the ways of art, and showing us that paintings can have a deeper meaning which can impact the lives of many.
Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.
Throughout his life... was a man self-haunted, unable to escape from his own drama, unable to find any window that would not give him back the image of himself. Even the mistress of his most passionate love-verses, who must (one supposes) have been a real person, remains for him a mere abstraction of sex: a thing given. He does not see her --does not apparently want to see her; for it is not of her that he writes, but of his relation to her; not of love, but of himself loving.
In the sensitive poem “Don't Go Far Off”, Pablo Neruda, the author, conveys the message that once you have someone who has grown to mean so much to you, it becomes almost impossible to even imagine how you would get by without that person in your life. Neruda substantiates this by using a dark sense of word choice, a type of imagery that inflicts emotions of loneliness and pain throughout the poem.