Book Review: Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Love Poems
by Pablo Neruda

I know. I know. Last week was all about the romance. You wracked your brain for grand romantic ideas, bought overpriced (but beautiful) flowers and gaudy heart jewelry, and now I decide to share a review of a collection of love poems so beautifully written one would only have to read this to their sweethearts by the fire. Did I lay that on thick enough? Well, I’m going to review this collection now because it’s worth sharing, and I do things my way.

All of Neruda’s poems are amazing, and this collection really highlights that. Full of seriously good, sensual imagery and feeling, this collection, mostly written on Capri, inspired the Oscar-wining film Il Postino.

Each poem was presented in its original Spanish form before its English translation. While my Spanish was a little rusty (OK a lot rusty), the experience of reading Neruda’s words as they were originally written was unparalleled, magical even, which isn’t much of a stretch considering Neruda’s work “form[ed] a critical link between the Surrealist movement of early twentieth-century Spain and the Magical Realism of the latter twentieth-century in South America.” (via) But as romantic and sensual as the verses were, they were also filled with heartbreak as the excerpt above proves. Wouldn’t we all like people who’ve broken up with us that we have stopped loving them or that we have forgotten them, too?

Rating

Writing: 5 out of 5 stars
Topics: 4 out of 5 stars
Impact: 5 out of 5 stars
Total: 4.67 out of 5 stars

Have you read any of Pablo Neruda’s many wonderful poems? Do you have a favorite? Have you read them in less rusty Spanish than I have?

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