Neruda, Poetry and Green ink: The colour of hope

Perhaps the most important Latin American poet of the 20th Century, Neruda was a Chilean poet as well as a diplomat and politician who was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature in 1971. A quirky but nevertheless important fact was that throughout his life he used green ink as a demonstration of his undying hope and belief in people’s lives.

Having moved to Santiago to escape family pressures that tried to discourage his literary intentions, Neruda lived the Bohemian lifestyle  and began a career teaching French. This early on he published,” Crepusculario” in 1923, an elegant and subtle collection of poems in the ‘Modernismo’ tradition from Spain; a version of Surrealistic poetry. However it was his second publication, “Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada” in 1924 which quickly established his ability and popularity. The poems were inspired by an unhappy love affair  and even today they are still some of his most popular.

“Vigourous,poignant, direct and original in their use of imagery and metaphors.”

Neruda continued to publish but his financial situation always remained precarious even when he took up honorary roles with the Chilean government as a Consul in Asia. All the time though his reputation as an outstanding poet increased. 

In the 1930’s Neruda returned to Chile and was employed by the Ministry of Culture but shortly afterwards was made Ambassador to Argentina. It was at this time that he met and befriended Federico García Lorca ( Bodas de Sangre). Their friendship developed after he completed his term as Ambassador and was then sent to Madrid. 

In Madrid Neruda participated and contributed in the cultural circles ( La Residencia) in Madrid, ( in Spanish these meetings are called,”Tertulias”,) more often than not with the leading figures of the ‘Generacion de 27’, Lorca, Buñuel, Dali, Hernandez ( Vientos del Pueblo) and many others.

This inspiring and interesting period was thrown into turmoil as he became a witness to the causes and outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The assassination of his friend Lorca and the ongoing civil war all became targets of his brutal and emotionally charged, “España en el corazon”. To express his solidarity with the Republican movement the book was published by Republican troops with improvised presses. Alongside the text are an extraordinary collection of photographs none more powerful than the image of Franco surrounded by dead children.

Neruda then published editions named after La Residencia in Madrid. This was a new phase in his life away from the hermetic and youthful love poems to a more accessible and open view of the world which began in optimistic fashion but ended in the catastrophe of the Spanish Civil War. By the beginning of the War he was back in Chile  continuing to support the Republican cause and was fully involved in the new centre left party. It was at this time he wrote ‘Canto general’ resonant with his new found political ambitions and filled with epic and historical overtones. It became and remains one of his key works as did ‘Alturas de Macchu Picchu‘ which is part of the Canto General and celebrates the pre-Columbian life of the Incas; Latin America; its  flora, fauna and its history particularly that of the liberation from Spain. As well it begins his lifelong concern for the political and social welfare of the people of Latin America. 

Neruda’s forays into the political scene nearly always ended in failure in Chile. When he supported Allende as President in 1969 he was made Ambassador to Paris but Allende’s term in office ended with a coup d’état and Allende’s suicide. It was shortly after these events that Neruda,  having been made a Nobel laureate, died.

Whether he died of cancer or was poisoned by Pinochet remains unresolved. 

 Neruda’s poetry can be put into four periods with the early love poems of the 1920’s followed by the Residencia collections  which represent his lonely and depressed days immersed in a world full of demonic and dark forces. His epic poems in Canto General represent his third period interpreting the past and present of Latin America and the eternal struggle to obtain dignity and social justice. The final fourth period was the ‘Odas elementales’ a period of everyday poems about animals , plants and nature.

Neruda was one of the most prolific and original poets to write in Spanish in the 20th Century. Given his enormous output it is extraordinary how the four periods of his work have an individuality and unity of their own.