Pablo Neruda

Poems by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda ( nə-ROO-də; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaβlo neˈɾuða] ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).

Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When President Gabriel González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months, and in 1949, he escaped through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina; he would not return to Chile for more than three years. He was a close advisor to Chile's socialist president Salvador Allende, and when he got back to Chile after accepting his Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people.

Neruda was hospitalized with cancer in September 1973, at the time of the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet that overthrew Allende's government, but returned home after a few days when he suspected a doctor of injecting him with an unknown substance for the purpose of murdering him on Pinochet's orders. Neruda died at his home in Isla Negra on 23 September 1973, just hours after leaving the hospital. Although it was long reported that he died of heart failure, the interior ministry of the Chilean government issued a statement in 2015 acknowledging a ministry document indicating the government's official position that 'it was clearly possible and highly likely' that Neruda was killed as a result of 'the intervention of third parties'. However, an international forensic test conducted in 2013 rejected allegations that he was poisoned.

Neruda is often considered the national poet of Chile, and his works have been popular and influential worldwide. The Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him 'the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language', and the critic Harold Bloom included Neruda as one of the writers central to the Western tradition in his book The Western Canon.

Poems

  • A Dog Has Died Read Poem
  • A Lemon Read Poem
  • Absence Read Poem
  • Algunas Bestias Read Poem
  • Always Read Poem
  • And Because Love Battles Read Poem
  • Bird Read Poem
  • Brown And Agile Child Read Poem
  • Canto Xii From The Heights Of Macchu Picchu Read Poem
  • Castro Alves From Brazil Read Poem
  • Cat's Dream Read Poem
  • Chant To Bolivar Read Poem
  • Clenched Soul Read Poem
  • Come With Me, I Said, And No One Knew (VII) Read Poem
  • Death Alone Read Poem
  • Don'T Go Far Off Read Poem
  • Drunk As Drunk On Turpentine Read Poem
  • Enigma with Flower Read Poem
  • Enigmas Read Poem
  • Entrance Of The Rivers Read Poem
  • Epithalamium Read Poem
  • Fable of the Mermaid and the Drunks Read Poem
  • Finale Read Poem
  • Fleas Interest Me So Much Read Poem
  • From The Heights Of Maccho Picchu Read Poem
  • Gautama Christ Read Poem
  • Gentleman Alone Read Poem
  • Here I Love You Read Poem
  • I Explain A Few Things Read Poem
  • I Like For You To Be Still Read Poem
  • I like you calm, as if you were absent Read Poem
  • I Remember You As You Were Read Poem
  • If You Forget Me Read Poem
  • In My Sky At Twilight Read Poem
  • In You The Earth Read Poem
  • It’s good to feel you are close to me Read Poem
  • La Muerta Read Poem
  • La Reina (and translation) Read Poem
  • Leaning Into The Afternoons Read Poem
  • Leave Me A Place Underground Read Poem
  • Lone Gentleman Read Poem
  • Lost In The Forest Read Poem
  • Love Read Poem
  • Love, We're Going Home Now Read Poem
  • Lovely One Read Poem
  • Luminous mind, bright devil Read Poem
  • LXXXIV From: ‘Cien sonetos de amor’ Read Poem
  • Magellanic Penguin Read Poem
  • Nothing But Death Read Poem
  • Oda al Tomate Read Poem
  • Ode To A Large Tuna In The Market Read Poem
  • Ode To A Naked Beauty Read Poem
  • Ode To Age Read Poem
  • Ode To Bird Watching Read Poem
  • Ode To Broken Things Read Poem
  • Ode to Clothes Read Poem
  • Ode to Hope Read Poem
  • Ode To Ironing Read Poem
  • Ode To Maize Read Poem
  • Ode to My Socks Read Poem
  • Ode To Sadness Read Poem
  • Ode To Salt Read Poem
  • Ode To The Artichoke Read Poem
  • Ode To The Book Read Poem
  • Ode To The Cat Read Poem
  • Ode to Tomatoes Read Poem
  • Ode To Wine Read Poem
  • Poesia Read Poem
  • Poet's Obligation Read Poem
  • Poetry Read Poem
  • Poor Creatures Read Poem
  • Potter Read Poem
  • Puedo Escribir Read Poem
  • Saddest Poem Read Poem
  • So that you will hear me Read Poem
  • Some Beasts Read Poem
  • Sonata Read Poem
  • Soneto XVII Read Poem
  • Song Of Despair Read Poem
  • Sonnet IX: There where the waves shatter Read Poem
  • Sonnet LXVI: I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You Read Poem
  • Sonnet LXXIII: Maybe you'll remember Read Poem
  • Sonnet Lxxxi Read Poem
  • Sonnet LXXXI: Rest with your dream inside my dream Read Poem
  • Sonnet VIII: If your eyes were not the color of the moon Read Poem
  • Sonnet XCV:Who ever desired each other as we do Read Poem
  • Sonnet XI Read Poem
  • Sonnet XIII:The light that rises from your feet to your hair Read Poem
  • Sonnet XLII: I Hunt For A Sign Of You Read Poem
  • Sonnet XVII: I do not love you as if you were brine-rose, topaz Read Poem
  • Sonnet Xxv Read Poem
  • Sonnet XXVII: Naked You Are As Simple as one of your Hands Read Poem
  • Sonnet XXXIV Read Poem
  • Still Another Day: I Read Poem
  • Still Another Day: XVII/Men Read Poem
  • Tell Me, Is The Rose Naked? Read Poem
  • The Dead Woman Read Poem
  • The Dictators Read Poem
  • The Eighth of September Read Poem
  • The Fear Read Poem
  • The Fickle One Read Poem
  • The House of Odes Read Poem
  • The Insect Read Poem
  • The Light Wraps You Read Poem
  • The Men Read Poem
  • The Night In Isla Negra Read Poem
  • The Old Women Of The Ocean Read Poem
  • The People Read Poem
  • The Portrait In The Rock Read Poem
  • The Queen Read Poem
  • The Question Read Poem
  • The Saddest Poem Read Poem
  • The Song Of Despair Read Poem
  • The Tree Is Here, Still, In Pure Stone Read Poem
  • The United Fruit Co. Read Poem
  • The Weary One Read Poem
  • The White Mans Burden Read Poem
  • The Wide Ocean Read Poem
  • Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine, Love, Read Poem
  • Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines) Read Poem
  • Tower Of Light Read Poem
  • Triangles Read Poem
  • Unity Read Poem
  • Walking Around Read Poem
  • Walking Around (Original Spanish) Read Poem
  • Waltz Read Poem
  • Water Read Poem
  • We Are Many Read Poem
  • What Spain Was Like Read Poem
  • Your Feet Read Poem
  • Your Hands Read Poem
  • Your Laughter Read Poem
  • ‘Carnal apple, Woman filled, burning moon,’ Read Poem
  • ‘In the wave-strike over unquiet stones’ Read Poem
  • ‘March days return with their covert light’ Read Poem
  • ‘Perhaps not to be is to be without your being.’ Read Poem
  • Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market Read Poem
  • One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII Read Poem