Post-1960s’ poetry

The constant and massive output of Neruda's last decade until his death in 1973 from cancer, and then his eight posthumous collections, all prepared by the poet, constitute a critical challenge. These books consolidate his world status and his awareness of his readership. He had won the Nobel Prize in 1971 and represented the ‘poet’ in the eyes of most Latin Americans. He is perhaps the most translated poet in Spanish ever (see my Appendix). His themes all related to his public self, even the love poems are ‘public’, avidly read by thousands.

The collection Plenos poderes (cleverly rendered as Fully Empowered by Alastair Reid) appeared with Losada in 1962, and was perhaps his most ‘abigarrados’ [varied], claimed Loyola. A normally hostile critic, Mario Benedetti, praised this book as an ‘austere book, without concessions, of settling scores with himself, is one of the most authentic and valuable books Neruda has written’. The poems are genuinely circumstantial, and can be read against his biography (his travels, his friends, his houses etc.). I take the title as a confession of the ageing poet's contented self-awareness, his ‘dicha’ [happiness] (PN2 1096), his boast that: ‘Estoy contento con tantos deberes’ [I am content with so many duties] (PN2 1132). As is usually the case, the opening poem is directed at alerting the reader to the poems that follow. ‘Deber del poeta’ [Poet's duty] tells the reader trapped in work to listen to the sea. We have here a therapeutic version of art that opens out the listener's imagination:

One constant of Neruda's art has been the ‘ear’, to listen to the sound of nature, the ocean and the inner sea: ‘y el mar palpita, muere y continúa’ (PN2 1091).