Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda’s style has structure but does not have a traditional style of writing. His writing of the time seems to bring new fresh ideas to the table relating love to the earth and our surroundings. The book Love Poems seems to be comprised together, not as separate poems. It would be adequate to read the poems separately but in this book, they all compliment each other in style and in meaning. Each poem uses the body as a figure in nature or compares love to nature through descriptive words or meanings. In the first section of the book it seems as if Neruda is focusing on more the body of the woman then throughout the book the nature and the women become more complex together. His main subjects are always a woman, specifically a women that he in deeply in love with. His love for nature, and for his woman combines into a mesh of deep meanings and deep inner feelings. The poems are predictable only in the way that they are all about love. In no way does Neruda have a dull moment in any of his poems or from one poem to the next. He captivates the reader though titles and through the use of the Spanish on the left page and the English on the right. The tension between languages is great, and makes the poems seem even more romantic and full of love. The structure of his poems are slightly like free verse except they have a lot of structure and he is very strategic with end stops and stanzas. Many of his poems are short, such as less than a page, but only a very few are longer. Also his poems are consistently short lined, despite the few that have longer more free versed lines. The lines are simple with mostly short sentences, and it is clear that he is enjambing the lines on purpose, even though they are not harshly enjambed. The vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of his love poems because they are the descriptive words that complete his poems and allow the reader to relate and understand them. Neruda uses some of the same words throughout the poems such as island, nature, blood, love, roots, and flowers. By using the same words in different poems allows the reader to make connections throughout the book. The books overall tone is melancholy and reflective which makes the read easy and enjoyable for many different types of readers. At the end of the book, there is no real conclusion, except that he uses the word root, which allows the reader to feel grounded and complete at the end of all the poems. Many writers should not try and emulate his specific style only for one reason and it is because it is in Spanish. Unless you are fluent in another language it is very appropriate and interesting, but it is a difficult task to achieve. I find myself wanting to know more about his love, not just her physical appearance and how he interacts with her and how he feels, I want to know more about her and her feelings towards him.