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 What to expect?

Analysis of Pablo Neruda's poem



Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines



Activity:

Humugot at
Humugot...

Each one will pick a
piece of paper inside
the jar, whoever picks
the paper that has a
written word inside will
make the saddest line
he/she can, out of the
given word.

The Pen Name
The Ink
The Injection
He was inspired to use Pablo
Neruda has his pen name after he
was inspired by Jan Neruda. He
was a Czech poet. In 1971,
Neruda became the winner of
Noble Prize in literature.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song
Trivia
Neruda tried to symbolize his Five days being hospitalized, he went
personal hope and desire by using home. But Neruda suspected the
the green ink. The example of his doctor giving him an unknown
collection of love poem was injection. Six and a half after the
published in 1924. The title was injection, Neruda died on 23rd
September 1973 at his home.
of Despair.
 Author's Biography
Poem's Historical
Context

Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes The poem was originally

Basoalto or Pablo Neruda published in Chile in 1924,
and appeared in Neruda's
Born: Parral, Maule, Region, collection, Veinte Poemas
Chile in July of 1904. de Amor y una Canción
Desperada.
Neruda’s first poems were
composed when he was ten The poem's title in Spanish
years old. is ''Puedo Escribir.''

He was nominated as a The collection was
candidate for president in translated into English in
1970. 1969 by W.S. Merwin, titled
Twenty Love Poems and a
Neruda died in 1973 from Song of Despair.
heart failure.
 What is the structure, form and type of the
poem Tonight I Can Write the saddest lines?

It is a Free verse poem in a series of one

and two-line stanzas; written in the style of
monologue. It is written in simple and
concise language, understood by all.
An emotional poem in which Neruda's
speaker depicts his love, his loneliness, and
his hopes.
What is the main theme of
the poem?
The main theme is the
emptiness caused by lost love.
 What is the tone used in the
poem?
The tone of the poem is sad,
melancholic, love-struck, and bitter.

What are the poetic devices present in the
poem?
Imagery

"She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.

How could one not have loved her great still eyes?"

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

"The night is starry and she is not with me."

"My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing."

"Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes."
 Personification

" The night wind revolves in the sky and sings,"

-This line an example of personification as

clearly he gives the wind human like traits as
he refers to the wind as singing.
Metaphor

"The night is shattered "

"The blue stars shivers in distance"

- These are metaphors for the current state of the

speaker’s love life.

Irony
"the saddest lines"
- This is an ironic line and the poem itself
expresses a broader situational irony.
 Repetition

"Tonight I can write the saddest lines"

- Repeating this line, it creates rhythm as

that line returns the reader back to that
phrase, much like the downbeat of a drum.
Also, the reader is able to fully understand
the depth of what the speaker is feeling.

Alliteration

"Saddest, stars, shiver, sky, sings, sometimes, singing,

satisfied, sight, same, she, short and so. "
- All these words mentioned in the poetry consist of
consonant sound "s".
Assonance
“My voice tried to find the wind to touch her.” hearing."
- This line having subsequent words that has " ī " sound.
Juxtaposition

"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 maybe I love her."

"Love is so short, forgetting is so long."

- present in the following lines, the author
uses two different words together to
emphasize or to accompany the writer's
intense emotion.
Symbols
The conventional symbol that was used in this poem
were visible in the lines:
"Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms my
soul is not satisfied that it has lost her. "
- Night is used as a symbol of pain and sorrow since its
dark color can justify the color of loneliness and misery.

-This symbol also sets the mood of the poem which is

somehow gloomy.
On the other hand, the contextual or literary symbol used
were visible in the lines:
"Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky."

"And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture."

- The use of symbols in these lines such as the endless

sky and dew to the pasture reveals the pure love of the
poet to the one he loves and how a love can suddenly
disappear after falling just like a dew.
 REFLECTION

Poetry is an important form of creative

writing that centers around the expression
of complex feelings and experiences.

Th a nk
you