Brown, Monica, and Julie Paschkis. Illustration of Pablo Neruda from the book “Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People.” Https://Www.Themarginalian.Org/2014/11/04/Pablo-Neruda-Poet-of-the-People-Book/, The Guardian.
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,” an iconic line from One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII by Pablo Neruda, a sonnet that is hard to miss when discussing romantic sonnets. It is a passionate sonnet describing the indescribable feeling of being wholly in love with someone. A fourteen lined sonnet separated into three stanzas, it is a traditionally set up poet structure, especially with its specific rhyme scheme. Because of its traditional nature and theme of love, something poets love to write about, it is easy to compare it to other sonnets. However, despite its traditional structure and common theme, its vivid imagery and unique language, despite its traditional structure and common theme, its vivid imagery and unique language, it is nothing less than one of a kind.
Take Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day by: William Shakespeare, another iconic sonnet about love with fourteen lines. They even are written in very similar iambic pentameters (rhyme scheme.) It is known by many to be one of the most beautiful sonnets made. (Jamieson, 2024) Although Sonnet 18 is undeniably beautiful, One Hundred Love Sonnet: XVII will always be seen as the most beautiful by myself.
The tone and words used in One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII is passionate and tender, with lines such as, “I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul,” it is hard to not fall in with this sonnet as much as the author is in love with the subject he is writing about. Neruda describes how love makes you feel alive with the line, “thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body.” In the line, “except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,” Neruda paints a picture of how when you love someone you both become one. Overall, through the pretty metaphors and passionate language, Neruda describes how love truly surpasses any previous definition of what love could be.
Sonnet 18 has adoring language and is more heavy on the metaphors. As the title suggests, he is comparing his love and his lover to objects and phenomenon’s more than describing the actual feeling of love. With lines, “sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines; and often his gold complexion dimm’d,” Shakespeare is using personification to describe his love, in this case he is personifying the sun. His language is straight-forward, as if he is saying my love is like this. This contrasts with Neruda’s flowery and lyrical lines.
There are also cultural differences between the sonnets purely based on the who and when of the sonnets. William Shakespeare is a British Caucasian man whose career boomed in London back in the Elizabethan era. He was also a man of substantial wealth and was quite popular when he was alive. (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust , 2024) Pablo Neruda is from the 20th century, and wrote One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII in the 50s. He was born and raised in Chile, and was also a politician and diplomat as well as being a poet. He was also popular when he was alive, in fact he has a Noble Prize for literature and is considered by some the most important Latin American poet in history. (Britannica, 2024) Both poets are important and cultural icons, and their lives shape the way they write and express their feelings.
Love is a beautiful and indescribable phenomenon that Neruda is able to intimately express with such a passionate and unique tone. Although it is by far not an unknown sonnet, I am surprised that it is known the first sonnet that more people think of when asked, “what is the most beautiful sonnet?” Especially with lines such as, “I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love.”
Works Cited
Jamieson, Lee. “These Romantic Shakespeare Sonnets Will Get You in a Romantic Mood.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 17 July 2024, www.thoughtco.com/top-shakespeare-sonnets-2985270#:~:text=Sonnet%2018%20is%20considered%20by,thee%20to%20a%20summer’s%20day%3F.
“One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49236/one-hundred-love-sonnets-xvii. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.
“Pablo Neruda.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 19 Sept. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Pablo-Neruda.
“William Shakespeare Biography.” Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/william-shakespeare-biography/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.