The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Hi everyone

I’ve had this book for quite some time now and I never actually finished reading it. I had read some bits and pieces but the whole book through? No, I never managed that.

That’s why I decided to read it from start to finish. I wanted to complete the book in 2016 so I started in May.
Some days I read just a few poems, other days I read more than a few or none at all. I have to feel like reading poetry to really enjoy it. Are you like that too?
It’s slow-going that way but I feel like you shouldn’t rush poetry.

This book contains Pablo Neruda’s poems. All of them. Which is why it’s so long.
I got my copy from Bol.
Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

This is a beautiful collection.
I love having all his works, together in one book, no matter how big.
My Spanish is really, really bad. I took classes when I was 16 but I had to quit after just one year.
Every poem in this collection is translated into English, but here and there the original poems are printed too. I liked reading them in Spanish, just for the sound though I couldn’t really understand them.

I enjoyed this collection. Spreading it out over such a long time definitely enhanced the experience and my appreciation of his work.

Neruda covers a wide range of subjects in his poetry. Some poems are confusing or seem to be about absolutely nothing while others are overflowing with passion or love for a person, nature or something else entirely. His love poems especially are very human and raw.
But I definitely didn’t like or enjoy all of his poems. Some of his poems are too raw and bare for me personally). And there are those I just didn’t understand.

3.5 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena