100 Love Sonnets
Porscha Silva
IB English 1-4A
Ms. Einsporn
29 May 2013
100 Love Sonnets When referring to a significant other, one would typically shower the other with lavish compliments such as complimenting their beauty and all that that person has to offer. Going against the norm, Neruda presents his lover in ways that most people could not even fathom. Metonymies, metaphors, and ways of hypothetical speech(not to be taken literally) are used in their entirety to most effectively portray Neruda’s unconditional love for his wife, Matilde. In our modern day society, the word love is used much too loosely. Love can be described as an intense feeling of affection towards someone or something. Most people take the time to notice the little things about their beloved, and express their appreciation for them. Regardless of whether or not Neruda was being literal or figurative, one would most likely not go as far as to praise each and every one of their significant other’s hairs. In sonnet XIV (14) Neruda says that he does not “…have enough time to celebrate [Matilde’s] hair” (Neruda 33) yet wishes to “…detail …and praise them” (Neruda 33). Although it is just Neruda’s figure of speech, due to extremely tedious and nearly impossible task of praising each and every one of Matilde’s hairs, his words of appreciation are apparent. Along with glorifying her hair, Neruda also exalts her mouth, voice, and body. He “hunger[s] for [her] sleek laugh… hunger[s] for [her]…fingernails, and want[s] to eat [her] skin like a whole almond” (Neruda 27). Not only does he announce praise for her hair, he also craves other parts of her body. Going against what would be considered normal for a man to express in order to sway and romanticize his woman, Neruda made strange metaphors to voice his love for her. Compared to Neruda’s erotic poetry, a conventional poet expressed his feelings for his lover by saying that “Never had [he] seen a girl so beautiful, with skin so amazingly radiant and
IB English 1-4A
Ms. Einsporn
29 May 2013
100 Love Sonnets When referring to a significant other, one would typically shower the other with lavish compliments such as complimenting their beauty and all that that person has to offer. Going against the norm, Neruda presents his lover in ways that most people could not even fathom. Metonymies, metaphors, and ways of hypothetical speech(not to be taken literally) are used in their entirety to most effectively portray Neruda’s unconditional love for his wife, Matilde. In our modern day society, the word love is used much too loosely. Love can be described as an intense feeling of affection towards someone or something. Most people take the time to notice the little things about their beloved, and express their appreciation for them. Regardless of whether or not Neruda was being literal or figurative, one would most likely not go as far as to praise each and every one of their significant other’s hairs. In sonnet XIV (14) Neruda says that he does not “…have enough time to celebrate [Matilde’s] hair” (Neruda 33) yet wishes to “…detail …and praise them” (Neruda 33). Although it is just Neruda’s figure of speech, due to extremely tedious and nearly impossible task of praising each and every one of Matilde’s hairs, his words of appreciation are apparent. Along with glorifying her hair, Neruda also exalts her mouth, voice, and body. He “hunger[s] for [her] sleek laugh… hunger[s] for [her]…fingernails, and want[s] to eat [her] skin like a whole almond” (Neruda 27). Not only does he announce praise for her hair, he also craves other parts of her body. Going against what would be considered normal for a man to express in order to sway and romanticize his woman, Neruda made strange metaphors to voice his love for her. Compared to Neruda’s erotic poetry, a conventional poet expressed his feelings for his lover by saying that “Never had [he] seen a girl so beautiful, with skin so amazingly radiant and
Cited: Guevara, Michael. “Poem For A Girl.” TeenHut. N.d. Web. 26 May. 2013 Neruda, Pablo. 100 Love Sonnets. Austin: University of Texas, 2008. Print.