Friday, March 14, 2008

Pablo Neruda "Walking Around"

Neruda often wrote about common things. In his poem "Walking Around" he speaks of walking around his town, to common places in any neighborhood like the barber shop, the shoe store, and passing by all the houses. The tone of this poem is very bleak, and it suggests that Neruda is fed up with the world he lives in. In the poem, he repeats the line "It happens that I am tired of being a man." As he is walking around to all these places, it makes him realize how much he despises what humanity has become. Around line 37, he writes "there are mirrors which should have wept with shame and horror." When you look into the mirror, all you see is your reflection. If the mirror should have wept with shame and horror, then all of humanity must be corrupt in Neruda's mind. I think everyone has been fed up with society at one point. Although this is a bleak outlook of the world, there are days when we feel disconnected from humanity; like we don't want to be a part of it anymore. I think this is the feeling that Neruda is trying to capture in his poem "Walking Around."

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