Pablo Neruda XXII Amor

 This poem is a sonnet titled "XXII Amor" by Pablo Neruda. It starts off with describing love without site, where love comes from so many places, like what you hear, then just how one may appear. Line 4 states that "You are the aroma of the cereales that I love" so the poet here is referring to a small detail of life and connecting it to an overarching idea about what love. We often see commas in the middle of lines, but on line 11, a period is separating two part of the line, which is unusual. I believe the volta appears at the beginning of the second to last line, so this period may be used to trigger the volta.  He describes love without really knowing it and describes it was this indirect thing that sometimes cannot be identified until it passes. The poet ends the poem with a metaphor. "Frente a mis ojos estabas, reinándome, y reinas. Como hoguera en los bosques el fuego es tu reino." This metaphor compares the love for this other person to a bonfire in the forest where fire is her "kingdom." I connected this ending to Shakespeare, he often used metaphors about nature to connect to different aspects of love. In my next post, I will continue discussing this sonnet. 

Cuántas veces, amor, te amé sin verte y tal vez sin recuerdo, sin reconocer tu mirada, sin mirarte, centaura, en regiones contrarias, en un mediodía quemante: eras sólo el aroma de los cereales que amo. Tal vez te vi, te supuse al pasar levantando una copa en Angol, a la luz de la luna de Junio, o eras tú la cintura de aquella guitarra que toqué en las tinieblas y sonó como el mar desmedido. Te amé sin que yo lo supiera, y busqué tu memoria. En las casas vacías entré con linterna a robar tu retrato. Pero yo ya sabía cómo era. De pronto mientras ibas conmigo te toqué y se detuvo mi vida: frente a mis ojos estabas, reinándome, y reinas. Como hoguera en los bosques el fuego es tu reino. Cite: Ciudadseva.com

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