Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines by Pablo Neruda|Summary| Analysis|Theme

 "Tonight I Can Write" is a very famous poem by Pablo Neruda. This poem first came to readers in in the collection of his poems named, "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada".

 The collection of poems was being translated by W.S. Merwin and he names "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair".

 Now coming back to the poem "Tonight I Can Write" we can say that the poet is expressing his heart. The title of the poem is very significant because it tells the whole story in a line.

Starry Night |Tobias

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Summary of "Tonight I Can Write"

The poem is getting started with the repetition of the title. Then the poet further describes the night fills with blue stars that are shivering at a distance.

 When the poet tells the readers he creates a fantastic, romantic image. The stanzas are very short and consist of only two lines. 

These are filled with imagery. Pablo Neruda created imagery that is helping the readers to recognize the atmosphere of the night.

"The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too."

Here, the poet is saying that he can write the saddest lines of love because he loves her, the beloved. Probably his love for the lady is ignored and this is why he wants to write these saddest lines of love.

 He wants to sing by sitting under the blue sky which is free from all pain and sorrow. After that, the poet states that throughout the night he held her by his arms and kissed her again and again.

 But still, the poet is sad because he cannot get her probably for the rest. Under the vast blue sky, she loved the poet sometimes and the poet too loved her. 

In the next line, the poet is uttering that he lost her and for that, he wants to write the saddest lines. Her great eyes were the reason for love. Whom he loved so much left her and makes the poet alone. 

"To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.

And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture."

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.

The night is shattered and she is not with me"

The night is immense but without her love, a night will never be repeated and not be immersed. The verse of the poet falls down in her love and the soul gets a charm of love.

 But these all do not matter to the poet as it has already torn out and the beloved is not with Pablo Neruda anymore. Thus, the shattered night is just the saddest letter of the poet. 

At some distance, there is one who sings at the midnight but to the poet, it does not make any sense as he lost the beloved and Pablo Neruda feels with a breast of eye water that cannot be teared. 

He also writes that his soul is not satisfied because of the loss of the lover. Poet's sight is searching for the beloved and their heart is too searching that face that is not with the poet anymore. 

This is how the poet is expressing his sorrow. Here each of the lines is expressing the saddest truth that 'she is not with me anymore.

"I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.

Her void. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long."

Here the poet tells the readers he is not going to love the beloved anymore as she left. But the poet is not telling the readers the reason for leaving him.

 Poet's voice finds her that would touch the beloveds but still, it did not find the body to whom will gently touch. She will be another's beloved who will get her for the rest or as a life partner. 

But she accepted the poet's kisses and made a void in the heart of the poet for that he is suffering and has become alone. The bright body, her infinite eyes makes the lover blind. 

Therefore, the poet speaks a truth that has been appreciated by many critics that love is short but the suffering for losing love is long, and forgetting that person is truly hard and the poet also cannot forget her and his sufferings are getting risen. 

In these lines, the use of a figure of speech is seen that is ' Polysendaton'.When in a line a single word repeats again and again then in the poetic language a critic calls it 'Polysendaton'. Like,

 "Her void. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes"

Pablo Neruda repeats the word 'her' thrice in the line. 

"Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer

and these the last verses that I write for her."

In the very last lines, the poet writes that the poem that he writes for that woman who left is also a part of his pain. In the struggle of forgetting a person, this works hard. This is how the poet is ending his poet with a clean note.

Theme

In this poem, Pablo Neruda dedicates his love and sacrifice to his readers. He thinks that his heart started bleeding more and to cease the blood he has written this poem. 

So that, the readers can get to know all his pain and sorrow for .losing the love of life. Sorrow is the main theme of the poem but along with that, he creates romantic images that also attract the readers very well.