Pablo Neruda Love Poetry contains his 100 Love Sonnets inspired by his wife, Matilde.
Pablo Neruda love poetry cannot be complete if we ignore the body of love poetry he produced in his middle age, which were mainly inspired by his third wife Matilde Urrutia.
Probably, rarely has a muse served as the inspiration and driving force of such a large body of poetry, as did Matilde Urrutia to Pablo Neruda when he wrote the famous "One Hundred Love Sonnets".
Indeed her inspiration did not end with "One Hundred Love Sonnets" There were other love poems in "The Captain's Verses" and "Barcarole" which volumes contain some of the most beautiful Pablo Neruda love poetry, showcasing a mature shared love rather than the youthful infatuation of his youth.
Most of the Pablo Neruda love poetry in this section is taken from "One Hundred Love Sonnets".
They were written between 1955-1957. Highly passionate and imaginative, the poetry is divided into four sections, Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.
In these poems, Matilde's is the only micro universe the poet inhabits. In his own words "Kiss by kiss I travel your little infinity,/ your borders, your rivers, your tiny villages"
This intimate travelogue is also juxtaposed with imagery and metaphor from Neruda's mountainous homeland and provides a surrealistic tinge to their intimacy "...I am like a scorched rock / that suddenly sings when you are near, because it drinks / the water you carry from the forest, in your voice"
Cien Sonetos de Amor, to use its spanish name, employ many of the master poet's signature of sensuality and vivid imagery. Some of the lines are simply unforgettable:
"Your kisses are clusters of fruit, fresh with dew"
"Your heart is a clay toy shaped like a dove"
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines often employed to express contemplative thoughts or emotions. Pablo Neruda uses the idiom loosely by keeping to a 14-line structure for each poem even though he rather modestly did not regard his sonnets to be of the more refined type.
In keeping with this magical value of fourteen that defines the sonnet, I have selected 14 sonnets from Pablo Neruda love poetry for our enjoyment, but before we look at them here are two other beautiful poems from Pablo Neruda love poetry which I could not resist serving up for you dear reader, as a special bonus for your patience!
Maybe you'll remember...
Maybe you'll remember that razor-faced man
who slipped out from the dark like a blade
and -- before we realized -- knew what was there:
he saw the smoke and concluded fire.
The pallid woman with black hair
rose like a fish from the abyss,
and the two of them built up a contraption,
armed to the teeth, against love.
Man and woman, they felled mountains and gardens,
they went down to the river, they scaled the walls,
they hoisted their atrocious artillery up the hill.
Then love knew it was called love.
And when I lifted my eyes to your name,
suddenly your heart showed me my way.
This beauty is soft...
This beauty is soft -- as if music and wood,
agate, cloth, wheat, peaches the light shines through
had made an ephemeral statue.
And now she sends her freshness out, against the waves.
The sea dabbles at those tanned feet, repeating
their shape, just imprinted in the sand.
And now she is the womanly fire of a rose,
the only bubble the sun and the sea contend against.
Oh, may nothing touch you but the chilly salt!
May not even love disturb that unbroken springtime!
Beautiful woman, echo of the endless foam,
may your statuesque hips in the water make
a new measure -- a swan, a lily --, as you float
your form through that eternal crystal.
Click here for more Pablo Neruda Love Sonnets
Click here for Pablo Neruda Passionate Love Poetry
Click here for Pablo Neruda Melancholic Love Poetry
Click here for Pablo Neruda Joyous Love Poetry
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