Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tonight I Can Write...

Renowned for his love poems, “Tonight I Can Write…,” is a translation of one of Neruda’s more famous ones. The poem reflects helplessness that the poet feels after losing a loved one. The poem definitely carries a sad tone. The poem starts with the line, “Tonight I can write the saddest lines.” The poet repeats the line twice, in the first one-third portion of the poem. He knows that the relationship is over, but vents his emotions into a poem. The poet combines his strong themes such as nature and love. He creates silent background with use of word, “nights” repeatedly. Further, he builds an attachment to nature by use of words such as “the blue stars,” “night wind,” and “endless sky.”

It is indicative of his personality of having multiple wives that his love is superficial. He wrote, “How could one not have loved her great still eyes.” Further, he wrote “Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.” In above lines, he refers to his lover’s physical features as a source of attraction. In “I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.” And in, “She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.” It sound like the love was not concurrent or true.

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