Tonight I can Write the Saddest Lines ( Love poem ) Pablo Neruda

1. Examine the uniqueness of “Tonight I can Write the Saddest Lines” as a confessional love poem.

Pablo Neruda is the great poet of Chile. He was a communist and a revolutionary poet. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. ‘Tonight I can Write the Saddest Lines’ is one of the best love poems of Neruda. It is a monologue written in a confessional mood, lamenting the loss of love of a jilted lover. The lover thinks of the natural world, the night, the stars, the wind, the sky and everything that reminds him of his lost love. The night and the darkness match his sad mood. The lover confesses that tonight he is writing the saddest lines and thereby he is ritually killing his lady love with his pen which becomes his mighty sword!

The poet juxtaposes ‘tonight and the nights of the past when his lady love was with him. Tonight he is terribly alone. Now the night stands for his shattered love and the twinkling stars became blue and shiver in the distance. The narrator of the poem is a jilted lover whose girl friend has become another man’s wife/friend. This makes him very sad and is lamenting on the loss of his love. He admits that their love for each other became a failure on account of their mistakes. The fickleness of love is the major cause of his loss of love. But he cannot run away from the past which haunts him day and night like a nightmare. He says, ‘She loved me, sometimes and I loved her too’. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too’. This frank opinion of the narrator is the beauty of the love poem.

 All human beings and their words and deeds are imperfect which leads to failures and the poet admits this truth. When she was with him, they enjoyed every night and all nature supported their love. The night, the sky, the stars and the cool breeze welcomed the young couple. They thought their meetings would last forever but the inevitable came and they were separated. Still the narrator loves her and thankfully remembers the sweet joy that she has given him.

 He says, ‘Love is short, forgetting is so long’. Their love for each other was so sweet that the time flew away in a lightning speed. But the past love haunts him day and night like a nightmare. The narrator, like all human beings thought that she would be forever his lover and only his. It is a foolish idea. Nothing belongs to us. She has gone to another man. Now the narrator wants to escape from his past which is still haunting him day and night. Therefore he starts writing a poem which begins ‘The night is shattered and the blue stars shiver in the distance’

 In the poem he expresses his love, anguish, helplessness and the terrible loneliness. Thus he explains his love which is now dead and gone forever. His past love is shattered and shiver in the distance.  Night and stars are metaphors of his past love. The lines of his poem falls on his heart like dews on the meadows. He is certain that this poem is like a ritual killing of his love for her. Thus he can set himself free from the thought of her.

 ‘Tonight I can Write the Saddest Lines’ reaches universal level. Pablo Neruda gives us our love poem which we hug to our heart with great satisfaction and whisper every line of it in our solitude. This is genuine love poem meant for every human being who is born to love and be loved!                                            Kjt/-16-11-2018