Q. With reference to the poems
in your syllabus critically discuss Neruda’s poetic politics.
Pablo Neruda
was a Chilean poet and politician. His poetry depicted the realities of 20th
century. He began his career as a love poet and ended it as an “outspoken
advocate for engaged art and communist cause” says Erin Becker. Neruda
reflected on politics after the outbreak of Spanish civil war, he was mostly
advent of fascism and cold war tension. Spain’s destruction by civil war
changed the whole life of Neruda. Neruda then emerged as a people’s poet where
he twisted together lyrical intensity, epic imagination and political zeal.
Neruda’s poetry became a matter of political discourse; his poem also brought
the proletariat class into focus. Neruda identified with Spain as his mother
country but he also had Chilean nationalist hidden inside him. Neruda’s source
of passion was the communist party. He valued the communal over the individual
and thus there is decline in sexual passion in his later poetry. Neruda turned
to realism in order to portray the complexities of class struggle. Some poems
which shoe the political state of mind f Pablo Neruda are ‘Ars Poetica (1933)’,
‘the way Spain was (1947)’, ‘discoverers of Chile (1946)’, and ‘Ode to Tomato (1954)’.
In Ars
Poetica poet brings together “girls and garrisons” to force us into a
realization of youth and freshness moving towards destruction that all battles
cause. He compares his sentiments to a “widower’s grief” and “humiliated
scullion”. Though this poem does not completely relate to war, it still
describes the uncertainty and grief that will come after war. Hints of death
are visible in “the wind that whacks my breast”. Neruda believes art is not
created by beauty but it must be discovered through a perception which appears
grim and destroyed and appears destroyed and appears from the hidden conscious
of human. There is emphasis that poetry should come out of suffering. The poem
breaks away from traditional form of surrealism by presenting disjoined images
which were an emblem of 20th century. The feel of the poem is not at
peace but there is tension. The backdrop of the poem is war; war as a metaphor
of struggle of poet’s mind and the war that would take place later in Spain.
Poet is at the receiving end of war and has to move from objectivity to
subjectivity. The poem was written at the time of uncertainty and it shows in
the poem till the end. The time was when decisions and discourses relating to
war were being made. The speaker’s mind is unsteady and the poetic psyche is in
turmoil just like Spain was at the time of civil war.
The poet
turns nostalgic in the poem ‘ The way Spain was’ and expresses his love for
Spain as well as laments for its abjection at the hands of fascist forces. The
poem written several years after the civil war and was a reaction to the war
and mass murders in Spain. Spanish civil war was a turning point for Latin
American writers. Neruda shows an image of Spain inflicted with pain and
monotony. In stanza 2 he screams that he loves Spain but Spain has become
“barren”. It has lost direction and is in confusion and chaos. The people along
with the country are meant to be without any sense of direction after the war.
The eagle is a symbol for imperial power which has now destroyed Spain. The
drumming sound is of war, of disturbance, unhappiness and symbol of destruction
over land. The barren soil makes Spain stagnant and shows that it has no
future. Neruda is influenced by leftist ideology; he tries to revive Spanish
people- “spirit of resilience”. He makes people remember who they were. Spain
is now moving towards a modern age. Last stanza brings serious intention of
Neruda as a people’s poet. He is not just an observer but an active part of
struggle. He feels his poems should be life for people. The aim of the poem is
to bring out something new by going out something new by going beyond politics.
Anjana Dutt
says that Neruda starts with history of the Spanish settlers in Chile who were
very impressed by talks of richness and wealth. In ‘Discoverers of Chile’,
“Gold burns” and “silver illuminates” are images of wealth. Neruda describes
the country in its physical form “my thin country”, “silence lies in its long
time”. Because the natives couldn’t protect themselves against invaders they
were compelled to merge their history and culture with that of invaders.
“Neruda’s poetry raises mundane objects to sublime heights” says Susnigdha Dey.
The Spanish conquerors were drawn towards Chile because of its wealth. The poem
reflects Neruda’s political state in 1938 when he was drawn to Spain calling
himself Spanish by race and language. This poem captures the entire history of
the arrival of the discoverers of Chile from “north” from where “Almago brought
his crushed ember”. Neruda explains how people were first oppressed and
exploited by conquerors and dictators. The poem describes the destruction and
violence unleashed by colonizers in 1938. Neruda said he needed to reach and touch
“my true soil”. Poem shows a Eurocentric history that is replaced by myth of
creation; Neruda’s description of physical form of country makes him return to
his country. For Neruda there is never a conflict between Spain and Chile,
Neruda is re-interpreting events with an outlook of history, he examines the
land’s rich, natural heritage.
‘Ode to the
Tomato’ explores the two hemispheres Chile and Spain presented through image of
two tomato halves in the poem. The poem was published in 1954 which was an extremely
important time for Neruda as he was in exile from his homeland for opposing
fascist regime. Because of political unpredictability of Neruda he became
people’s poet. He wrote about the problems of everyday life and by writing
about a tomato he inverts the myth that there is nothing celebratory in
everyday life. The tomato becomes an average Chilean who lives every day
despite the gravity of civil strife and political crimes around him. The new
abundant harvest of tomatoes becomes a symbol of celebrating native identity.
The halving of tomato can be halving a Chilean into two parts or it can be
“reminiscent of two hemispheres to which Chile and Spain belong” says Anjana
Dutt. There was bloodshed in Chile because of civil strife and thus the lines
“light is halved like a tomato”. The juice of tomato can symbolize bloodshed.
Tomato which is personified first came from Latin America. It could mean
“tomato invading the kitchen” is colonizers invading the land. The poet
alternates between culinary delight and violence in the kitchen. Act of cutting
tomatoes is equal to an actual murder. There are images of tomato invading
every day aspect of a Chilean life. Tomato go well with onion; is Neruda
talking of sexual union between Red Indian and white Europeans. The salad bowl
is a mix of Chilean and Spanish culture, there is joy and celebration in his
meal- “of ardent color, all embracing freshness”. Through tomato cultures are
being joined. It also represents festivity and riotousness on one hand and
majesty on other hand. One question that deals with the laws of that time is-
why tomato is both a fruit and vegetable? According to the 1983 US Supreme
Court rule “any plant or part thereof eaten during the main dish is a
vegetable. If it is eaten at any other time it is a fruit”.
The
literature of civil war was thus a great subject of mythologizing. Art and
politics was fused together in a no. of works. The struggle between the
republican and national forces in Spain became the source of imagination and
conscience of many writers from around the world. Poetry of Pablo Neruda and
other poets and novelists like Ernest Hemingway, Stephen spender and Federico
Lorca explored the clash between political ideologies of socialism and fascism
and between civilization and barbarism. The war was a central theme for
Neruda’s poetry.
The poems
reflect Neruda’s political state of mind before and after the civil war. In
1938 when Neruda returned to Chile he became more political in his poems and
wrote reactions to civil war, about mundane things of life and the class
struggle. Neruda’s poetic passion is more in politics rather than sexuality and
so Neruda kept in expanding his political views through his poems. He examined
the land’s rich natural heritage and described long defeat of Native Americans
by Europe. ‘Ars Poetica’, ‘The way Spain was’, ‘Discoverers of Chile’, and ‘Ode
to Tomato’ all describe Neruda’s political stand and how he reacted to the
changes taking place in Spain and Chile.
Works cited
Becker,
Erin. ‘Colored by Passion: The Political-Poetical Intersect in the Life and
Work of Pablo Neruda’. PIT Journal. 2010. Print
Dey,
Susnigdha. ‘Chilean Poetry: From the Epic to the Mundane’. Neruda, Walcott and
Atwood: poets of Americas. Ed. By Anjana Dutt. Worldview publications. 2016.
Print.
Dutt,
Anjana. Introduction. Neruda, Walcott and Atwood: poets of Americas. Ed. By
Anjana Dutt. Worldview publications. 2016. Print.
Spanish war,
introduction. www.warpoets.org/conflicts/spanish-war.
Deepali Yadav
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