Tonight I Can Write

“Tonight I can write” is one of Pablo Neruda’s sensational work. The poem uses simple lyrical composition in where
the narrator talk about his broken heart and which he finds difficult to overcome. The title itself indicates us of
Neruda’s emotional turmoil. Throughout the poem he expresses his physical and spiritual love and passion,
alienation and loneliness as well as memories and reminiscence.

The poem is basically about the pain and depression caused through losing the love of his life. Even after the
broken relationship he keeps on recalling old memories. The line “tonight I can write the saddest lines” expresses
that now he can write about the past as he now owns a broken heart. He expresses his love for a woman with
whom he was indulged in passionate romance. He mentions physical details of her such as, “her voice, her bright
body”, “her infinite eyes”, “her great still eyes”. He also remembers kissing her “again and again under the endless
sky”. Though he admits that he doesn’t want her in the lines “I no longer love her, that’s certain” but his love is still
noticeable as he repents by “Another’s. She will be another’s. As she was before my kisses”. He talks about both
physical and spiritual love for her. Physical love can be seen in the line “As she was before my kisses” and spiritual
love was described using nature, “endless sky” or “to find the wind to touch her hearing.” He writes his “saddest
lines” on a night that is similar to the nights he spent with his lover. Yet the darkness and the stars that “shiver at a
distance” in this night suggest his loneliness. His loneliness makes him realize that “maybe I love her”. But he
concludes in a dilemma about what he actually wants but his pain is still visible in “love is so short, forgetting is so
long.”

The poem ends on a note of loneliness where the young lover realizes that his memories continue to haunt him
and he will never ever has his love back. The poem ends on a heart wrenching nostalgic note:

“Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.

I kissed her again under the endless sky”.

The Potter

“The Potter” Is one of Pablo Neruda’s imagery wonders put up through words. It was originally written in Spanish
and was later translated to English and even though translation at times could not highlight its real values but the
expressions seem to be as legit and accurate as it can be. “The Potter” is Pablo’s visualization of how he seems
himself as a potter and portrays his loved one as a vase.

The poem is a short one but each line holds its own depth in terms of meaning. Right at the beginning he uses the
word “whole” to specifically state that he has full rights over her as she a vase and he was the potter. The poem
uncanny of Pablo’s nature, comes into play only once and on the second stanza “my very own potter’s hand”, but
still it indicates that the title is based on him. Even though he isn’t actually a potter, he still uses this one word to
entitle his work which is quite interesting. As a women I would honored if someone gave me the compliment that
my body was a vessel of love to someone. The artwork of pottery holds intimacy in itself as you use your mind and
hands to create something beautiful from a lump of clay. Intimacy is further seen between them as he considers
him and the women melting and molding into one and also stating “one single river, like one single grain of sand”
being together forever.

Throughout the whole poem their bond is compared with nature itself and the finishing is like an icing on a cake as
river and sand are a part of nature created by God and they two are the same which provides the poem with a
powerful ending.
The Insect

Pablo Neruda is one of the most versatile and visionary Spanish poet of all time. He has a different prospective in
seeing things and because of that he is always changing his surroundings and his point of views. He at times goes
beyond a person’s imagination and results of that imagination is poems like “The Insect”. This poem was originally
written in Spanish which was later translated to English which over the time made him much more popular.

This poem actually does not connect to me. Yes it has been cleared out before that he definitely has a spiritual
connection towards that woman and most of his poems are about his love and feelings for that woman but this
one stands as a bit too obsessive one. But it does clear it that the poem highlights his desires for that woman but in
this case the desire seems to be an obsessive one. He considers himself as an insect and her body, from hips to her
feet is a mountain he needs to decent and basically that’s all. He uses nature to define his feelings for her body as
he goes down. “Over these hills I pass”, “I trace a spiral” are lines used to indicate her curves as he comes nearer to
her feet. Ending doesn’t have a strong statement either as his actual meaning is hard to predict.

Insects in real life are an inspirational creature and the title would suggest a story of struggle as insects do have a
tough life but still they carry on but it is rather about desire for his love rather than struggle.

The Flag

Pablo Neruda has written this poem to show his greatest respect and love for his country and thus the title is given
“The Flag”. Not just for his country, he expresses his love for his wife throughout the poem and he wishes to fight
the ongoing issues that his country is facing with the help of his love.

The very beginning of the poem starts with a serious note as he calls out every fellow countrymen to show respect
for their country and fight for the right thing. The Speaker says there is nothing more he would like rather than to
lay down beside his wife but when the fight is for his country he would rather go out to fight and come home to
forever rest in peace. The next lines are sort of motivational as he tries to awaken every soul to come and fight
against the devil which in this case is the North American companies who provide hunger and misery to his
countrymen. And lastly though his wife is not physically present with him on this battle but he visualizes her as a
star going everywhere he goes and fighting his fight.

The flag was written to awaken everyone, to stand against the corruption and robbery their nation was facing and
he himself motivates himself as the love of his life is always alongside him.

United Fruit Company

This explicit poem is written by Pablo Neruda to attract the spotlight on the injustices brought upon on the people
of central and South America by the richer northern American companies and the dictators. They would forcefully
exploit their labor and apply inappropriate democratic movement. The poem expresses his disgust towards those
dictators and how their dominance led to catastrophe for the rest America.
The first stanza starts with how the world was made and ends with the birth of some of the most powerful
companies. In the first couple of lines its quite easy to understand that it resembles how the earth was made by
God but afterwards it describes how many giant companies were made like Ford motors and how those companies
would occupy the most precious lands in central America to further spread their business. The second stanza
further explains their dominance and dictatorship. They would give rebirth to a country which was already
independent. They would force those people to live a non-independent life of slaves. Neruda used the word “flies”
to point out his extreme disgust as he repeats it over and over again. Flies are seen around trash or garbage or
rotten stuff and on an ironic note they have come here to rot the people of Latin America. The third stanza
introduces us with the fruit company. The fruit company were literally robbing the resources of Latin America,
resources like coffee which grows in Latin America better than any other places of the world and fruits were also
included. The last stanza is all about the conclusion they faced after being dominated by the companies or in other
word “the flies”.

Pablo Neruda had witnessed independent people forced into slavery by dominance and power. This poem was a
method to raise his voice against those viciousness and to spread the word around the world.

Lives

Pablo Neruda has portrayed himself as the face of the people who are fighting their battle against the powerful
and dominant North American companies. He is a leader of all those who cannot raise their voices who cannot
defend their dignity.

Those men who are a slave of those companies are nothing more than a puppet, they have no alternatives but to
keep being dominated. The speaker is telling his lover that he speaks for each and every one of them, they might
not have their individual voices but they speak through him. The speaker doesn’t exist in reality he is just face that
fights for their rights. He is stronger than ever because he doesn’t have the miserable life anymore, he’s living the
life of all those brave men. He moves accurately as he now has not two but thousands of eyes, he is now thousand
times stronger than he was ever before. His voice travels miles ahead cause he’s the voice of those thousands who
talk through his mouth that doesn’t fear of anything anymore. He’s not one but he is now thousands.

The poem evaluates how pumped up the speaker was as now each every word is written confidently. His
motivations have awaken all those bruised men and now he is as powerful as thousands of men.