TONIGHT I CAN WRITE THE SADDEST LINESBY PABLO NERUDAPrepared by Bermio & Castro

M.T. 31401418

AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

SynopsisBorn in Parral, Chile, on July 12, 1904, poet Pablo Neruda stirred controversy with his affiliation with the Communist Party and his outspoken support of Joseph Stalin, Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro. His poetic mastery was never in doubt, and for it he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Neruda died on September 23, 1973, with subsequent investigations exploring whether he might have been poisoned.  

Early LifePablo Neruda was born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in the Chilean town of Parral in 1904. His father worked for the railroad, and his mother was a teacher who died shortly after his birth. At age 13, he began his literary career as a contributor to the daily La Mañana, where he published his first articles and poems. In 1920, he contributed to the literary journal Selva Austral under the pen name Pablo Neruda, which he assumed in honor of Czech poet Jan Neruda.

Growing PopularitySome of Neruda's early poems are found in his first book, Crepusculario (Book of Twilight), published in 1923, and one of his most renowned works, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair), was published the following year. Twenty Love Poems made Neruda a celebrity, and he thereafter devoted himself to verse.

AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

Accomplishments For the next 21 years, Pablo Neruda continued to write prodigiously, rising in the ranks of 20th century poets. (The collection of his complete works, which is continually being republished, filled 459 pages in 1951; by 1968 it amounted to 3,237 pages, in two volumes.) He also received numerous prestigious awards, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. 

AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

Death and InvestigationsNeruda died just two years after receiving his Nobel Prize on September 23, 1973, in Santiago, Chile. Though his death was officially attributed to prostate cancer, there have been allegations that the poet was poisoned, as he died right after the rise of dictator Augosto Pinochet to power. (Neruda was a supporter of Pinochet's deposed predecessor, Salvador Allende.) In 2011, Neruda's chauffeur alleged that the writer said he'd been given an injection at a clinic by a physician that worsened his health. Chilean judge Mario Carroza later authorized an official investigation into cause of death. Neruda's body was exhumed in 2013 and examined, but a forensics team found no initial evidence of foul play. However, in January 2015, the Chilean government reopened the investigation with new forensic testing. Although Judge Carroza ordered Neruda's body to be returned to his gravesite, the discovery of unusual bacteria in the writer's bones indicated that the matter had yet to be fully resolved.In 2016, the life of the renowned poet inspired the acclaimed Chilean film Neruda, which is directed by Pablo Larraín and follows a police inspector (played by Gael García Bernal) on the hunt for Neruda as he hides to escape arrest for his Communist views. 

AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

POEM: “TONIGHT I CAN WRITE THE SADDEST LINES”

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shatteredand the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my armsI kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my armsmy sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me sufferand these the last verses that I write for her. 

ELEMENTS OF THE POEM

RHYME SCHEME, METER AND SYLLABLES THE POEM TONIGHT I CAN WRITE THE SADDEST LINES IS A…

FREE-VERSE POEM

LITERARY DEVICES IMAGERYImagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. LINES 2-3

“THE NIGHT IS STARRY/AND THE STARS ARE BLUE AND SHIVER IN THE DISTANCE”

LITERARY DEVICES PERSONIFICATIONPersonification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.

LINE 14“ AND THE VERSE FALLS LIKE DEW TO THE PASTURE”

LITERARY DEVICESREPETITIONa literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer.

LINES 1,5,10“TONIGHT I CAN WRITE THE SADDEST LINES”LINES 18 AND 30“MY SOUL IS NOT SATISFIED WITHOUT HER”LINES 7,29“THROUGH NIGHTS LIKE THIS ONE, I HELD HER IN MY ARMS”

MOOD OF THE POEM SADNESS

HEARTBREAK

DESPAIR

LOVE

POEM ANALYSIS

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. // Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered / and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’ //

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

The poem starts with the single line ‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines’. This line repeats itself throughout the poem and is its recurring theme.

There is night imagery. The night can be both beautiful and treacherous, and this may be reflective of the persona’s relationship. The alliteration of ‘s’ throughout the lines are reflective of the quiet night.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. / I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. // Through nights like this one I held her in my arms / I

kissed her again and again under the endless sky. // She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too. / How could one not have loved her

great still eyes.

There is a continuation of night imagery as the persona recalls how he and his lover used to spend romantic nights ‘under the endless sky’. The fact that they kiss ‘again and again’ reinforce the idea of an ‘endless’ sky and perhaps an endless love. This is in contrast with reality – a reality in which the persona’s lover only loves him ‘sometimes’.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. / To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her. // To hear the immense night, still more

immense without her. / And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture. // What does it matter that my love could not keep her. / The

night is shattered and she is not with me.

The parallelism (repeated line structure) in the three lines immediately after ‘tonight i can write the saddest lines’ serve to reinforce the message that the persona is no longer together with his lover – he has lost her.

‘Verse’ falling to the ‘soul’ is likened to ‘dew’ falling to the ‘pasture’. His soul absorbs the verse much in the way that the pasture absorbs the dew and reduces it to nothing. Similarly his love was unable to ‘keep’ his lover, and his love, like the ‘verse’ and ‘dew’ have been diminished.

The beauty of the night is ‘shattered’ upon the realisation that ‘she is not with’ the persona. His lover’s absence ruins the beauty of night time, perhaps because they spent many nights together

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance. /  My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her. 

  ‘This is all’ suggests something that is either plainly stated or final.

It could be that ‘this is all’ he has to write. The persona hears someone singing ‘in the distance’. This distant singing is undermined by the dissatisfaction of losing ‘her’.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her./ My heart looks for her, and she is not with me. // The same night

whitening the same trees./ We, of that time, are no longer the same. //

He searches for her with his ‘sight’ and ‘heart’ but to no avail. As the beauty of night wanes, ‘whitening’ the trees, the persona’s reality similarly becomes bleak as he realises that the ‘time’ that has passed can never be returned and that they are no longer the ‘same’, or no longer one.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her. / My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing. // Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before. / Her voice. Her bright body. Her

inifinite eyes. //

The persona is ‘certain’ that he ‘no longer’ loves her, but mourns over how he used to love her. His ‘voice’, looked for her. There is a change from present tense in ‘sight searches’ and ‘heart looks’ to past tense in ‘voice tried’, suggesting that he has accepted that his lover has moved on. His loss is emphasised by the single worded phrase ‘Another’. He recounts all the things that he has lost. The line ‘Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.’ contains 3 separate things and further emphasises the height of this loss.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her. /Love is so short, forgetting is so long. // Because through nights like this one I

held her in my arms / my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.//

The persona repeats that he is ‘certain’ that he ‘no longer’ loves her. However he contradicts himself by saying that ‘maybe’ he still does. This indicates uncertainty in his emotions.

An important message is stressed here, in the line ‘love is so short, forgetting is so long’. The persona’s inability to forget his lover leads to his soul being ‘not satisfied’ at his loss and his continued search for her. He once again recalls the nights that he held her in his arms and reiterates the fact that he is not satisfied that he has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer / and these the last verses that I write for her. //

The word ‘last’ emphasises finality. This is the perhaps the persona’s way of stating that the relationship is over. The final line of the poem provides closure to the repeated ‘tonight I will write the saddest lines’. The long vowel sounds in the last lines of the poem emphasises this sense of finality and closure.

THEME OF THE POEM

LOVE IS SO SHORT AND FORGETTING

IS SO LONG