He hailed from Chile, but to many, he was Pablo Neruda – Poet of the World. Mesmerized by the wonder of language, he published his first poem at the age of thirteen. A half century later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In all that time in between, Neruda wrote some of the world’s most highly regarded poems.
He wrote about the personal and the political. He was a voice for those he felt had none. He wrote about Vietnam, the Soviet block, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, and his homeland’s own bloody upheaval. He wrote about himself, and the heart. His love poems are intimate, passionate and poignant. He once said, “I have lived for my poetry and my poetry has nourished everything I have striven for.” A new tour through the poetry of Neruda
Guests:
Ilan Stavans, Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, editor of “The Poetry of Pablo Neruda.”