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Comment 22 of 32, added on October 6th, 2005 at 6:22 PM.
i absolutely love this sonnet. i just read it in my senior english class and i fell in love with neruda's sonnets rather than shakespeare's, as one is thought to want to do. but this sonnet, struck the strings of my inner most thoughts and played the most miraculous chord. unlike 10 of my classmates, i do NOT think this is about an adulteroud situation. i believe this to be true heartfelt love for someone they have been with so long that they no longer feel the need to know WHY or HOW they love the other. but they love each other so deeply that they are ONE. i love this.....
Jessica from United States
Comment 21 of 32, added on October 3rd, 2005 at 7:09 AM.
Topaz symbolizes “God” and rose salt contains a lot of iron, so the first line is Neruda’s way of telling his lover that he does not love him/her as if they were perfect or unattainable or judgemental. The second line furthers this idea by adding that he doesn’t love them in an idealized romantic way, rather he loves, as the third and fourth line describe, in a more primal, inherently natural way.
In the second stanza he goes on to say he loves “as the plant that never blooms”, which I believe is reference to his love being undying, because after a plant blooms it dies. Also, indicates his love as being constant and not fleeting as in a brief moment of intense passion. The third and fourth lines speak again of the primal, earthy love that is shared between Neruda and his lover.
The last two stanzas, I believe, are pretty straightforward and don’t need further explanation. In short, I believe this poem speaks of the true nature of love, that it isn’t a thing of fancy, or romanticism, or the stuff of novels, that it is dark and primal. It comes from somewhere beyond the rational of our brains and analytical tools. That is why, I believe, it is one of the best love poems ever written.
Gina from Germany
Comment 20 of 32, added on July 30th, 2005 at 12:42 PM.
I don't know much about the writter of this poem but I am trying to research as best as possible.\
I read this poem when I was a senior in high school and keep it in my Bible until I understood what it ment to me(not anyone else)
I am ow getting married(and having it read at my wedding) and know exactly what the poem means to me.
Sometimes you have no reason to love someone but you just do. There are so many things I can't stand about my soon to be husband but I don't know any other way.
Certain dark things are to be loved...I think love is a very private feeling no one else will ever understand your love for another it's "secrate" it is not suppose to be loud and boastful it's suppose to be calm and precious.
Shadow and soul/I believe that the writter saying/representing "Shadow" as how you see yourself and "Soul" is what is your partner sees you if this is real love. True Love.They see your Soul. Sometimes we as a person never take the time to dig deep and see who we really are.
the plant that doesn't bloom: I think it means that even if you stay the same person and never grow the love still holes beauty or if the relationship never blooms because of fate then the love that the person felt for you will always hold a beautiful place/memory in their heart.
Dark fragrent///alot of people would disagree with me on this but I believe man was made from women and that man was made from the dust of the earth.Maybe be this is saying or I feel it means that dense(deep) fragrate(the life) that rises from the earth:God created man from dust and women from man so it a big circle. Earth into Man.Man into Women. Women into babies that creates Man and Woman.The Circle of life.
And i think the rest of the Poem is self explained. If you can't feel what the poem is saying to you when you read it,,,there is no reason for you to understand it because it is not to understand what someone else saids it's for you to create what it means to you and love it for that.
Becca from United States
Comment 19 of 32, added on July 12th, 2005 at 3:19 AM.
In my expository Writing class, we've discussed the Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda and upon reading the poem, I got the feeling that it was more of a poem talking about an illicit affair (as well as the majority of the class)! What would you think of dark things used in a poem that is about love if not of something forbidden? Yes, this is a very beautiful poem and no offense meant to Shakespear, Shelley and all other romantic poets, but I admire Neruda's Sonnet XVII more. Why, Neruda is so brave to speak of such a relationship so direct yet subtle...
enelra from Philippines
Comment 18 of 32, added on June 29th, 2005 at 3:13 PM.
I think this is the most beautiful poem, and touches you deep within your soul... I have found that this poem in itself, is the best work of art I have ever read!
Shelley from United States
Comment 17 of 32, added on May 21st, 2005 at 1:29 PM.
This poem is absolutely magnificent! It really expresses how true love feels like and how it is expressed. I first read this poem on researching Neruda and fell in love with it. Those who understood the poem in Spanish know exactly what I mean when I say it is the most romantic poem published! And girls love the poem, so I use it as my pick-up line!!!! LOL!
Starsky from United States
Comment 16 of 32, added on May 9th, 2005 at 11:53 AM.
As a Justice of Peace I perform many marriages; When one or both of the couples are Latin American I give them a copy of this sonnet.
Lyell Thompson from United States
Comment 15 of 32, added on April 29th, 2005 at 10:53 AM.
If you are in love deeply or not; this poem speaks. All one has to do is listen with an open mind and an even more open heart. If you have ever loved, or hope to, read it again and again.
Deanna from United States
Comment 14 of 32, added on April 28th, 2005 at 5:32 PM.
My lover sent it to me three years ago when we were just one another's fling on the side.
That is what it did the first time I read it ...like magic, the words reached beyond my rationale, my worry ...my need for reason and stole my breath right out of me.
This is the most beautiful collection of words I have ever read and quite possibly the most articulate description of love that I have ever come across.
Perhaps the meaning is in our own hearts; simply put, the poem means exactly the feelings that it seems to stir in all of us.
For me it is a feeling of instinctual, unexplainable connection that raw, indestructable and beyond all reason. That is what I have for Him and always will.
Breathtaking.
Viveca from Canada
Comment 13 of 32, added on April 5th, 2005 at 3:04 AM.
Another reader said this was the most natural poem. That is the telling quality of the impression Neruda gives here. But the poem is not natural so much as it is a hard sparkling diamond, fused carbon of stylistic skill and emotional intensity.
The poem is postmodern in style. It sets up a term for meaning, then evades it. I will demonstrate this in the first stanza:
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
Between what and what? Well, this is where the reader is expected to do some cognitive work, to try and discover what Neruda is on about. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' offers the same device ("between X and Y") for distinguishing a modern vision, but that is not Neruda's way. He is happy for you to wonder and wander around his meaning, so long as you get the emotion:
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
The unique cultural sense of South America makes this poem distinctive, yes, but I am tempted to give a more direct and simple interpretation. Read on and I'll give it:
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
Okay. My interpretation is that Neruda is talking about his gay lover. The feelings of dirtiness from their lovemaking, and the deep need for secrecy in the macho culture of South America, are what he is talking about in the first two stanzas.
In the last two stanza he is coming to terms with the fact that he love another man because he knows "no other way". And with exhaustion and acceptence comes sleep in the final stanza.
That is my interpretation of this poem, knowing as I do only the basic fact of Neruda's homosexuality.
Paul Bard from Australia
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i absolutely love this sonnet. i just read it in my senior english class and i fell in love with neruda's sonnets rather than shakespeare's, as one is thought to want to do. but this sonnet, struck the strings of my inner most thoughts and played the most miraculous chord. unlike 10 of my classmates, i do NOT think this is about an adulteroud situation. i believe this to be true heartfelt love for someone they have been with so long that they no longer feel the need to know WHY or HOW they love the other. but they love each other so deeply that they are ONE. i love this.....
Jessica from United States