Poetry, with its unique ability to captivate our minds and offer a quick and profound reading experience, is a literary gem we often turn to when we are hungry for knowledge.
Poetry, with its lyrical and rhythmic nature, has a way of sticking with us. Its words, often more memorable than non-poetic ones, can enhance our memory and make it more receptive to retaining other information.
Poetry, deeply intertwined with aesthetics, offers a window into the world's beauty. It also serves as a cultural ambassador, providing insights into a society's history and values. Moreover, it is a powerful tool for emotional expression, allowing writers to share their feelings and readers to empathize with them.
With the same flow, my eyes caught the attention of the poetry book Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda in the library, and without making any further delay, I took the book.
The book is a paperback published by Penguin UK and has 487 pages. Below is one of the short and sweet poems in the book.
OCEAN
Body more immaculate than a wave,
Salt washing away its own line,
And the brilliant bird
Dying without ground roots
The book is remarkable in its content as it contains both the original Spanish version of the poem and the translated one in English. It contains nearly 117 poems on diverse topics. Wine, Gold, Ode To The Book, Fable Of The Mermaid And The Drunks, The Portrait In The Rock, The Lion, The Long Day Called Thursday, and The Water Song Ends are a few of the gems this treasure holds.
The poet's reputation is well known to all, and he needs no bigger introduction. This Chilean poet's poems about love were expressed through metaphors and images of nature. He was accomplished in a variety of styles in his poetry, ranging from erotically charged love poems to surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos.
Literary critics state that Pablo has ensured that the polychromatic and vibrant mix of stylistic elements and literary devices, such as personification, symbolism, imagery, repetition, etc., that he incorporates every time keeps the reader zealous.
The book was well received among readers of poetry, and here I quote a review of the book:
"Selected Poems contains Neruda's resonant, exploratory, intensely individualistic verse, rooted in Chile's physical landscape and people. Here, we find sensuous songs of love, tender odes to the sea, melancholy lyrics of heartache, fiery political statements, and a frank celebration of sex. This is an enticing, distinctive, and celebrated poetry collection from the greatest 20th-century Latin American poet."
Reading this book bestowed me with a new perspective on an all-time great poet and the secret of poetry's tight hold on readers.