Tag Archives: Pablo Neruda

Whitman, Neruda, and Earth’s Indifference

In 1856, Walt Whitman wrote “The Poem of Wonder at the Resurrection of the Wheat,” with the prospect of the destructive Civil War looming in the distance. This poem would later be called “This Compost,” and exemplifies Whitman’s classic crisis … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Whitman, Neruda, and Earth’s Indifference

An Ecocritical Look at Whitman and Neruda: Some Initial Thoughts

In my final paper, I will explore the ecocritical relationship between Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda (and maybe William Carlos Williams?). Relative to the exhaustive of the body of scholarship that has been done on Whitman and Neruda, not much … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Neruda and Whitman and Forgetting

James’s recent and incisive post offers a brilliant reading of the many arguably un-Whitmanian energies in Neruda’s love poem #20. More generally, he voices a healthy dose of skepticism concerning the degree to which we might think of Neruda or any … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Neruda and Whitman and Forgetting

Neruda as a Whitmanian

This week we dived into the work of some Latin American poets, but the one that stood out the most to me personally was Neruda’s. As per usual, we discussed the various ways in which Neruda’s work could be considered … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Neruda as a Whitmanian

Twenty Love Poems…#1

Pablo Neruda Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs, when you surrender, you stretch out like the world. My body, savage and pleasant, undermines you and makes a son leap in the bottom of the earth. I was lonely … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off on Twenty Love Poems…#1

Lost in Translation

What many translators say and we all hear many times: “The poetry of the language native to the poem is hard to capture in the transfer”. I find this most true with Neruda and even with the fine translations held … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Re-writing Neruda

The translation of poems into a new language, by a poet who did not write the original poem, is an odd concept. In the introduction to The Essential Neruda: selected poems, one of the translators, Mark Eisner quotes another previous … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Desaparecidos / The Disappeared

I rushed through Neruda’s biography yesterday–I hope you have a chance to check it out on your own before class tomorrow.  Neruda fell in and out of favor with various Chilean governments, but his most profound disappointment came with the overthrow … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on Desaparecidos / The Disappeared

The Saddest Verses

Pablo Neruda’s “I can write the saddest verses” is a beautiful poem that desperately tries to comprehend heartbreak. In a way, he has come to terms with the loss of a great love in his life, but recognizes that sadness … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

And where are the lilacs?

Whitman’s lilacs are one of the most enduring poetic symbols of the modern age; lilacs in a poem are never just lilacs. Traditionally, lilacs signal the coming of Spring as one of the earliest blooming flowers and represent youthful innocence … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments