"If You Forget Me" Pablo Neruda: Analysis Of Descriptive Language And Imagery In The Poem

Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, known as Pablo Neruda, was born in Chile in 1904. He was one of the greatest Nobel Prize winning poets of the 20th century. During the Modernista Literary Movement, he published literary works under the pen name of Pablo Neruda, which he adopted in memory of the Czechoslovak poet Jan Neruda. He was financially successful as a poet in his lifetime. The major topics and themes the poet addressed were social justice, communism, and love. He was in love with Matilde Urrutia, who would eventually become his third wife. Neruda’s intended audience in many of his literary works was his beloved Matilde Urrutia. The three most prominent poetic devices the poet used in his famous poem “If You Forget Me” were imagery, metaphors, and repetition. Through these poetic devices, he delivers the main message - being consistent. With the help of poetic devices he creates an intense atmosphere and at the same time a romantic mood in the poem, leaving an impact on the reader and allowing him or her to analyze it. So let's research more detailed this poem in ""If You Forget Me" Pablo Neruda Analysis".

Pablo Neruda uses visually descriptive language, imagery, in his poem “If You Forget Me” to draw a reader into a sensory experience. In line 2-4, the speaker says, 'If I look at the crystal moon, at the end of the red branch of slow autumn at my window'. The poet uses imagery to explain that everything that surrounds him reminds him of the woman he loves. He ends the last stanza’s sentence without any punctuation to indicate the eternal quality of his love. In the last stanza, Neruda implements an additional imagery, “If each day a flower/ climbs up to your lips to seek me”. The imagery of the flower blooming once again showcases how love has the ability to expand and evolve and is connected to an eternal flame. This quote shows that as long as the woman expresses her love to him, he will love her back. It personifies a flower climbing. The poet uses such figurative language to grant an object human qualities to make the poem more exciting and interesting to read.

The poet uses several metaphors in the poem to explain and clarify feelings and emotions of the speaker. In the 5th stanza, the poet tells his lover that should she “decide to leave me at the shore,” he will “on that day, at that hour…seek another land.” In this stanza, Pablo implements a lengthy metaphor of a land and its shore to warn the woman of the consequences of her not loving him back. Pablo represents the woman as the speaker’s home, however if she ever decides to leave him, the poet, without any hesitation, would start seeking another woman. Neruda also implements metaphor in lines 10-14, “as if that exists, aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me'. The poet explains how everything that exists are boats that bring the speaker to his loved one. Pablo Neruda uses metaphors to better describe speaker’s relationship towards the woman, to help the reader understand the speaker, and to simply make a poem interesting to read.

Pablo Neruda uses repetition in the poem “If You Forget Me” to emphasize a key idea, which is his deep love for the woman and the warning of what is going to happen if she would stop loving the speaker. In 16-17, the speaker says, 'If little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little'. These two lines emphasize the speaker’s seriousness of ending the relationship if the woman were to stop loving him because it is difficult to bear with the pain of broken love. The poet also uses repetition in the last stanza, if each day, each hour…if each day a flower climbs up…” Throughout the poem the repetition of words like “each day” emphasizes the main idea of the poem – staying consistent and making her love consistent.

In conclusion, Pablo Neruda uses imagery, metaphors, and repetition to deliver the main message of staying consistent with the love to the poet. These poetic devices help the poet to connect with a reader and allows a reader to better see and feel the storyline. “If You Forget Me” captures all of the reader’s senses and makes the story relevant to the readers. Imagery, metaphors, and repetition draw the reader in, heighten the sense, and pull at readers emotionally. This poem is beautiful because it spreads important ideas of expressing your feelings and being consistent.