I love Pablo Neruda. 我爱巴勃罗·聂鲁达. Me encanta Pablo Neruda

Oh Neruda...if only you were still on this earth, I would write and tell you how much I have enjoyed reading your gorgeous poetry, sometimes in its original language.

That's right, we got into Neruda today!! (well...on March 13, I know it's late; still playing catch up, cut me some slack here please). I read his poem Ode to a Tomato in my Spanish III class my junior year, as well as another one of his Spanish poems last term. "Tonight I can Write..." is my favorite, even though it has a melancholy undertone. Neruda describes his lover as something fleeting that he lost, and he debates back and forth whether he really loved her or not. Even his description of the night sky is melancholy and depressing, 'The night is shattered and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

Neruda's later poems show a more defined sense of self awareness and of the world around him. Walking Around and I'm Explaining a Few Things described a more political undertone to his poetry. In the Walking Around, Neruda is "tired of being a man" going to the movies "all shrivelled up, impenetrable". The imagery that he uses, such as the cobblers' shops smelling of vinegar and the birds the color of sulphur and the intestines are very intense and describes dead things, which is what he is becoming the longer he stays in the city.

Neruda's poem I'm Explaining a Few Things describes to readers why he has stopped writing about things beauty. During his time as a consul in Spain, the Spanish Civil war broke out in 1936. Neruda wrote in his poem that instead of finding things of beauty to write about, the streets of Spain were filled with the blood of the dead children and all the houses were burning. In the last stanza, he repeats "come and see the blood on the streets" as a way to force the reader to realizing there were more important matters than beauty and philosophy.

Feminist theory in Storni's poetry

So earlier this week, we discussed feminist theories and ideas that shaped the works of Virginia Woolf and Alfonsina Storni, but I found Storni's poems much easier to read and relate to. I found her life story more fascinating than that of woolf's, and I found myself admiring her for being the first female writer accepted into the predominantly male Latin American literary world. Storni was not afraid to speak out against the hypocrisy of the male dominated world even if it meant making enemies along the way. The very fact that she became financially independent at a young age, supporting herself with a variety of odd jobs is the driving force behind all of her works. Storni remarked that being forced to be financially independent at a young age taught her to live more like a man, rather than a pampered woman. Storni became intellectually and emotionally independent as a result of her succession of jobs. I thought the most dramatic aspect of her life was her pregnancy resulting from an affair with a married man when she taught at a rural elementary school. After the birth of her son, Alejandro, Storni did not settle down complacently as most women do in her time period, but kept on working and published her first book of poetry, The Restlessness of the Rosebush.

I love Storni's poems You Want Me White, Little-Bitty Man, and Departure because they were about her feminist beliefs and her life experiences. You Want Me White is a backlash against the hypocritical double standards of the male dominated society where males expects her to be "white as dawn...made of foam", virtuous and chaste while he made toasts to the God of wine and to leave his soul "entangled in all the bedrooms". She challenges men to go away into nature in order to reclaim themselves and purify their soul, and then ask the same of her.

I really loved the Spanish reading of Little-Bitty Man in class today, and it made me realize how much I miss reading poems in Spanish. Storni rebels against societal conventions which keeps her caged like a canary when she wants to be set free. At first, I interpreted the poem to mean that the man is of regular height but is diminished in stature (physical or moral) by the way he treats her. Then again, the "man" within the poem doesn't have to be a physical being, it can also be societal and cultural expectations which traps women into cages.

 In 1935, Alfonsina was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment which left her both physically and mentally drained. After the cancer recurred and spread in 1938, she refused to do further treatment, which was seen by some as a way of rejecting the oppressive male dominated medical community who has control over her health. As a way to take control of her life, she committed suicide on October 25 by walking into the sea at Mar del Plata, Argentina. She was such a strong woman throughout her life and she lived her life in such a way that even her death was an echo of the way she lived and what she believed in.

I should have had this set up way earlier. Sorry

I know I was supposed to have this set up by...the first day of class. Oops, sorry Dr. Reed *Sheepish smile*

The first reading we were assigned was Ruben Dario, who was considered the leading figure in the Spanish American Modernismo movement. Dario created a new standard for Spanish American literature by combining elements from both European and Latin American literature. I enjoyed reading all of his poems, but the ones that were my favorites were "Sonatina", "Blazon", and "Leda".

In "Sonatina", the princess feels sad and restless trapped in "the marble cage of the royal palace..." filled with all the finest things that money can buy. This shows that money can't buy a person happiness, and even the richest most sought after person is secretly unhappy with all the wealth they acquired. The poem reminds me of Disney fairy tales, such as Sleeping Beauty and Tangled, which is a more modern interpretation of the classic Rapunzel story. The one thing that puzzles me is towards the end, when the princess's fairy godmother showed up. That kind of showed me that it was starting to edge into fantasy territory. The godmother told her, "Hush, Princess, hush...the joyous knight who adores you unseen is riding this way on his winged horse...from far off, having conquered Death, to kindle your lips with a kiss of true love." which was a little off putting, instead of trying to resolve her predicament, the godmother was telling the princess to be quiet and tough it out until her prince charming arrives to save her.

The end of the poem felt a little disappointing to me, because I felt it was telling girls to be totally dependent on a guy to save them from difficult situations, and promising them that if they sat tight and waited long enough, they will be rescued by their prince charming. Maybe I'm being slightly feminist but telling girls to put all their hopes on the line just so a guy can make them happy is a little crazy and that's not how reality works.

"Blazon" and "Leda" was about the God of Mount Olympus, Zeus who takes the form of a swan and rapes Leda, a nymph who then gives birth to Helen of Troy. I really enjoyed reading about Greek mythology and I thought the way that Dario described Zeus in swan form was really majestic, and how Zeus was of "divine origin". He is described as being snow-white and pure, with a wing so white that it was almost "Eucharistic", Christ-like. "Blazon" focused on describing Zeus as swan form, but I really thought that the second poem "Leda" told more of the whole story, and that was more interesting to me. However, I did not really care for how the poem ended, with Pan, the sheep herd god of the woods accidentally witnessing the scene, it just further added to the trauma.