Pablo Neruda's style

Pablo Neruda, actually, was not called that. His real name was Naphtali Reyes Basoalto. Born in Chile, specifically in the city of Parral back in 1904, and he died in 1973, on September 23. If I think of Neruda, dozens of verses come to mind that only he could write that way ... And Neruda He was not only rewarded and praised for what he wrote, but for how he did it.

His personal style was to blame for his overwhelming personality, of communist beliefs, resolute and stubborn Up to the last consequences, he firmly defended everything he believed in and what seemed fair to him, according to his friends and his own widow, Matilde Urrutia, have written about him. For those who knew him and shared times of misery and oppression with him, Pablo Neruda enjoyed the exceptional charisma of those chosen who are considered exemplary. Neruda was actually a totally different being from the one who was shown before the cameras, shy, invisible and crouched ...

Summary of his life and style of his literary work

Neruda had two mothers. His biological one who died shortly after giving birth to him from tuberculosis and Trinidad Cambia Marverde, the second wife of his father José del Carmen Reyes Morales. According to Neruda himself, his "second mother was a sweet, diligent woman, she had a rural sense of humor and an active and indefatigable kindness."

In 1910 he entered the Liceo, where he already made his first steps as a writer in the Local newspaper called "La Mañana". His first published article was "Enthusiasm and perseverance". Met the great Gabriela Mistral, famous poet, who gave him some books by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov, very important in his early literary training. And although his father was totally against Neruda following this literary vocation, his eternal disputes with his son would be of little use to him. It was in this way that the royal Neftalí Reyes Basoalto began tosar the pseudonym of Pablo Neruda, with the sole and firm intention of mislead his father so that he would not realize that he was still writing.

He found the surname "Neruda" at random in a magazine, and curiously, Neruda was another writer of Czech origin who wrote beautiful ballads among other things.

He wrote up to 5 poems a day, many of which ended up in his self-published book entitled "Twilight". And we complain today when we have to find our lives to get a novel published ... Do you know how that book could be self-edited? He made money by selling furniture, pawning the watch his father had given him, and getting some last-minute help from a generous critic.

Despite this, "Crepusculario" left Neruda unsatisfied, and he tried even harder to write another new book. This would be much more personal, more worked and much better literary speaking. It was "Twenty love poems and a desperate song", of which was the verse that I remembered when I began to write this article:

I can write the saddest verses tonight.
Write, for example: “The night is starry,
and the blue stars shiver in the distance ”.
The night wind turns in the sky and sings ...

As of the publication of this second book, his literature becomes much more politicized. In addition, his life becomes somewhat more difficult due to financial circumstances, since his father withdrew all material help when Neruda decided to leave the studies he had begun to teach French at the Pedagogical Institute.

Seeking help, in 1927 he only obtained a dark and remote consular post in Rangoon, Burma. There he met Josie bliss, who would become her first partner. Couple that did not last long because of her demonized jealousy. He left her as soon as he learned that he had a new assignment in Ceylon. He secretly arranged his trip and did not say goodbye to her, leaving both clothes and books at home.

It was a few years later, in 1930, when Pablo Neruda married María Antonieta Agenaar, who would also become the mother of his daughter, Malva Marina.

In Buenos Aires met Federico García Lorca, who insisted that he travel to Spain. Here met Miguel Hernández, Luis Cernuda and Vicente Aleixandre, among others. But his time in Spanish lands did not last long, because when the Civil War broke out in 1936, he had to travel to Paris. There, saddened by the barbarism that was happening in Spain, and by the death of his friend García Lorca, he wrote the book of poems entitled "Spain in the heart". Also under this cause he decided to edit the magazine "The poets of the world defend the Spanish People."

In 1946 he was already in his homeland, Chile, where joined the Communist Party, and where he was elected senator of the Republic for the provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta. In 1946 he also received the National Literature Prize. But his happiness in the Chilean country did not last long, since after making public a protest in which he attacked the persecution of the unions by President González Videla, he was sentenced to his arrest. Thanks to friends, Neruda avoided jail and managed to leave the country.

While he was in hiding, he published another of his genius: “Canto general”. Book that was published in Mexico and would be distributed clandestinely in Chile. These years of exile were terribly sad for the author, who continued to receive awards such as the International Peace Prize, in 1950, along with other artists like Pablo Picasso and Nazim Hikmet. Despite his sadness, he had the solid and comfortable company of Matilde Urrutia, a woman who would become his companion until the day of his death. With her he had to live clandestinely until he could officially separate from his previous wife.

In 1958 another book would be published that Neruda himself defined as "his most intimate book": "Estravagario". Later he would write other works such as "Glare and death of Joaquín Murieta".

In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and two years later, in 1973, he died on September 11. Days after his death, they brutally looted his homes in Valparaíso and Santiago, which was a great outrage and amazement for those who adored the writer.

Literary style

Pablo Neruda's style was unmistakable. Wrote focusing on all the senses: hear, smell, look, etc. With this he sought the description of a scene or feeling as natural as possible to convey that truth to the reader and make him or her enter his poem or writing. Neruda was precise when looking for the suitable words that will excite the reader, especially in inanimate things, those most difficult to describe.

I used metaphors a lot and similes to create detailed and emotional descriptions of people, things, nature, and feelings. There is a lot influence of surrealism in his descriptions, since he used more rare and difficult expressions to describe really simple things, such as lost love, the magic of the night, etc. You also see the personification of inanimate things in his poetry when he speaks with a narrative like Bolívar in “Un Canto para Bolívar”, death in “Alturas de Macchu Picchu”, or the sea in “Oda al mar”. This personification increases the effects and universality of his poetry because Neruda gave life, emotion and breath to all things in the world.

A unique style that you can enjoy in countless works.