Studying Pablo Neruda has truly affected my life in unimaginable ways. I began studying Pablo Neruda during middle school, because he is a required poet in all of the literature classes in Mexico. He was one of the first poets that really got me into literature, and poetry especially, because before him I felt that poetry was too incomprehensible and even pointless. I was too young to really appreciate the beauty and depth of good poetry, and Neruda was one of the first writers that allowed me to build a personal connection to poems.
Throughout my high school, he was always my favorite poet to study in the Spanish language, and his poems were in a way the muses of my own poetry. During my junior and senior years of high school I presented two collections of my poems, where the overarching theme was love, loss, and the chance of loving once again. Neruda’s 20 Poems of Love and One Song of Despair was one of my greatest sources of inspiration because I connected with the way he wrote and the themes he addressed.
I chose Neruda for this poetry project because although I have always loved the way he writes, I had never taken the time to research his biography, muses, and important life details that have shaped his work. I also have not read other of his important works, so I wanted to get even more acquainted with him as an author in hopes of developing an even deeper connection between his literature and my poems. Something that I discovered about Neruda that really fascinated me the most was the way he talks about his ars poetica. The poem that I used in my presentation, “Poetry”, is an ode to poetry itself and Neruda describes line by line how he got interested and passionate about writing poems. This is probably the most interesting aspect of his life that I learned through the poetry project because although it is evident that he is passionate about writing, I never thought that he would have a poem dedicated to what got him into writing. As an aspiring poet and avid reader, I know how it was for me when I started writing. Therefore, it was really special to me reading about how one of the greatest poets in my opinion, talks about the same issues that I have lived through and how poetry consumed him entirely after he wrote the “first line”.
Through the poetry project I have reinforced my knowledge about Neruda’s biography, including details about him being a consul in different countries, an activist of communism, a wholehearted lover of women, a lover of his country Chile, and a lover of my country Mexico. By far, it is one of the most enjoyable projects that I have had in a literature class. This project has allowed me to learn more about Neruda’s life, his work, and why he is one of the most influential Latin American writers and undoubtedly one of my biggest role models for writing.
Yes, indeed, my poems reflect a lot of Neruda's elements in some ways. However, they are very different in many other ways. I probably have not been through half as much as what Neruda went through in his life as a lover and husband, but I do write about "whatever" that goes on in my life that I think is important. Poetry just lets me reflect my voice and it allows me to write what I am thinking. Poetry gives words to my thoughts, and therefore life.
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