Modernism in Pablo Neruda’s “Today I Can Write”

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Modernism in Pablo Neruda’s “Today I Can Write”

Not all poems are considered modern because they belong to the modernist literary movement. However, it should be noted that modernist poets such as Eliot emphasized on favor intellect over emotion, and as well valued the themes of alienation and isolation as a reaction to the romanticism. For modern poetry, the common characteristics include the stream of consciousness, preference for the suggestion, or ambiguity, and free verse. Besides, it does not attempt to convey dignity and tends to personalize the text. The poem “Tonight I can write” can be considered modern poetry since it exhibits most of the characteristics. For example, it is a free verse poem in that it does not follow a specific pattern. Besides, the author tends to be ambiguous, providing contradicting information in the poem. Another issue is that it is highly personalized with the pronoun ‘I’ all over the poem. Another characteristic is that it is full of awareness, for example, “Today I can write’ where the author is aware of his writing capabilities. Another major characteristic is that it does not offer to provide dignity since it is full of romantic messages.

There are various poetic devices that have been used in the poem, and they include repetition and imagery. Repetition can be seen in the line “Tonight I can write,” which is used in line 1, line 5 in the first stanza, and line 11 in the opening stanza. The other term that has been repeated in the poem is “night,” and the repeated words and phrases have been used to create emphasis. Imagery has also been used in the line, “The night is starry, and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance,” and this helps in creating visual images in the reader’s mind. Major themes in the poem include love and passion and memory and reminiscence, which happens to be in line with modern poetry.

Works Cited

Neruda, Pablo. “Tonight I Can Write.” Retrieved June 27 (1924): 2013.