The making of a great Chilean poet.
Pablo Neruda was without doubt one of the greatest poets of the
twentieth century. However, his work is extremely uneven, and long. The
companion examines the view that there are two Nerudas, an early
Romantic visionary and a later Marxist populist, who denied his earlier
poetic self. By focussing on the poet's apprenticeship, his struggle to
read and incorporate French poetry and travel abroad and by looking
closely at how Neruda created his poetic persona within his poems, this
companion tries to establish what should survive of his massive output.
By seeing his early work as self exploration through metaphor and sound,
as well as through varieties of love and direct experience, the
companion outlines a unity behind all the work, based on voice and a
public self. This companion studies Neruda's debt to reading and books
in depth and re-examines his change in poetics by concentrating on the
early work up to Residencia en la tierra I and II and why he wanted to
become a poet. Many critics have argued that some kind of critical
assessment must be made in order for Neruda's later work to be read.
This companion grounds this debate about quality and representativity in
his Romantic thinking, sensibility and sincerity. Unlike a Borges or a
Paz who accompanied their creative work with analytical essays, Neruda
distilled all his experiences into hispoems, which remain his true
biography.
Jason Wilson is Professor Emeritus at University College London.
