What is the meaning of the poem Suburbs?

[nil1996]

Meaning of poem "Suburbs"

Hello PF :

I have the following poem named Suburbs by Pablo Neruda.The poem is getting very hard for me to understand.

i have understood it as:

the poet says that he likes the good and bad things of the middle class people who just overpower refrigerator(things that make people proud).
Not understood the meaning of ""position colorful ...for pool:""

 

[Mark44]

My take is that he is saying that middle-class people attach lots of things to their refrigerators (pictures, etc.) and place umbrellas in their gardens, when the umbrellas would be more appropriate near a pool (that they don't have).

 

[Borek]

For me to "overwhelm the fridge" means overconsumption - they buy so many things they hardly fit and poor fridge has a hard time cooling it all down. And umbrellas fit the idea of unnecessary things we are surrounded with.

 

[Evo]

For me to "overwhelm the fridge" means overconsumption - they buy so many things they hardly fit and poor fridge has a hard time cooling it all down. And umbrellas fit the idea of unnecessary things we are surrounded with.

In the US, it would probably refer to all of the stuff people cover their refrigerators with. A lot of parents use the fridge to post good report cards, little charts with stars for acheivements, etc...

https://www.google.com/search?q=ref...PlsASy7oDwBg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&biw=1008&bih=598

I guess his feelings on umbrellas in a yard with no pool means aspiring to more status.

 

[D H]

Poets have written about the issues that this poem addresses for a long time, maybe forever. What is it that makes so many people *want* to pursue a lifestyle that the poet sees as utterly mundane and without meaning? What joy can there possibly be in an overfilled refrigerator?

 

[Evo]

Poets have written about the issues that this poem addresses for a long time, maybe forever. What is it that makes so many people *want* to pursue a lifestyle that the poet sees as utterly mundane and without meaning? What joy can there possibly be in an overfilled refrigerator?

Whoa, that last line was very deep. You are a true poet DH.

I should start a thread "What's on your fridge?" I have a stuffed moose and a cat. My hippo head broke.

 

[D H]

This poem was originally written in Spanish. Poetry doesn't always translate well. One of the key mistranslations here is "pequeños burgueses suburban" into "suburban middle-class people". That translation doesn't quite capture the somewhat derogatory nature of "pequeños burgueses suburban", particularly to someone like Neruda.

Here's the opening of the poem as written in Spanish:

SUBURBIOS

Celebro las virtudes y los vicios
de pequeños burgueses suburbanos
que sobrepasan el refrigerador
y colocan sombrillas de color
junto al jardín que anhela una piscina:
este ideal del lujo soberano
para mi hermano pequeño burgués
que eres tú que soy yo, vamos diciendo
la verdad verdadera en este mundo.
​

For the full version, see https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=279331635534450&id=298376103511623.

Keep in mind Neruda's background. He sided with the communists in the Spanish Civil War at a rather impressionable age and remained very much an ardent communist throughout his life. The petty bourgeoisie (euphemistically, the middle class) is the one thing communism can't quite grok. The wealthy are easily dealt with; they are despicable. The poor are the ones who need saving. But what about the "pequeños burgesses suburbanos"? They don't fall in with either the despicable wealthy people or with those mired in poverty who need to be uplifted. How do the devils and heroes of the world deal with those who get their joy from an overfilled refrigerator and meaningless umbrellas (colorful as they are) poised above a swimming pool that will never be?

 

[zoobyshoe]

This poem was originally written in Spanish. Poetry doesn't always translate well. One of the key mistranslations here is "pequeños burgueses suburban" into "suburban middle-class people". That translation doesn't quite capture the somewhat derogatory nature of "pequeños burgueses suburban", particularly to someone like Neruda.

Here's the opening of the poem as written in Spanish:

SUBURBIOS

Celebro las virtudes y los vicios
de pequeños burgueses suburbanos
que sobrepasan el refrigerador
y colocan sombrillas de color
junto al jardín que anhela una piscina:
este ideal del lujo soberano
para mi hermano pequeño burgués
que eres tú que soy yo, vamos diciendo
la verdad verdadera en este mundo.
​

For the full version, see https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=279331635534450&id=298376103511623.

Keep in mind Neruda's background. He sided with the communists in the Spanish Civil War at a rather impressionable age and remained very much an ardent communist throughout his life. The petty bourgeoisie (euphemistically, the middle class) is the one thing communism can't quite grok. The wealthy are easily dealt with; they are despicable. The poor are the ones who need saving. But what about the "pequeños burgesses suburbanos"? They don't fall in with either the despicable wealthy people or with those mired in poverty who need to be uplifted. How do the devils and heroes of the world deal with those who get their joy from an overfilled refrigerator and meaningless umbrellas (colorful as they are) poised above a swimming pool that will never be?

All well and good, but this poem isn't derogatory to the middle class. It is, in fact, what it says it is: a celebration of the virtues and vices. The brother in him has trumped the communist. His attitude toward the petite bourgeoisie here is one of, "It's all part of life's rich pageant," sort of thing, an attitude of acceptance of the bad with the good.

Why would a man who is politically a communist write such a poem? We find out from the poem: his brother is one of the petite bourgeoisie. It's a poem about a poet poetically/psychologically coming to terms with his brother's mind set, one very different from his own.

 

[jtbell]

I should start a thread "What's on your fridge?" I have a stuffed moose and a cat. My hippo head broke.

We have a couple of the small foam-rubber cows, that used to come with Gateway computers. They're about 15 years old now, so they've turned yellow.

 

[D H]

Are they spherical cows?

 

[nil1996]

Hello people


My book says that the word "Refrigerator" does not mean that device instead it means things that make people proud.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Hello people


My book says that the word "Refrigerator" does not mean that device instead it means things that make people proud.

Book's wrong. He's definitely referring to real refrigerators in that line and how the lower middle class treats them. It's not a line about general pride of ownership. It's just descriptive. It describes the middle class by referring to a typical middle class practice.

 

[D H]

All well and good, but this poem isn't derogatory to the middle class. It is, in fact, what it says it is: a celebration of the virtues and vices. The brother in him has trumped the communist.

Read it again. It is damning with faint praise. Is an overfilled refrigerator, a colorful umbrella next to a swimming pool that will never be a worthy virtue, given that these people, in the mind of the poet, have been stripped of their laurels, their medals, their titles, and their names?

Why would a man who is politically a communist write such a poem? We find out from the poem: his brother is one of the petite bourgeoisie. It's a poem about a poet poetically/psychologically coming to terms with his brother's mind set, one very different from his own.

Perhaps. The poet however does not agree with that mindset. In the poet's eyes, the brother has been duped into thinking that an overfilled refrigerator and a colorful umbrella next to a swimming pool that will never be are signs of success.

Hello people

My book says that the word "Refrigerator" does not mean that device instead it means things that make people proud.

Refrigerador in Spanish and refrigerator in English are the same concept. It's that box into which one jams lots of perishable foods so it doesn't perish as quickly as it would were it not cooled.

The poet is using an overfilled refrigerator as a metaphor. Aside: I'm not thrilled with the given translation "(middle classed people) who overwhelm the refrigerator". That's too literal a translation, and as such it misses the intent. A better translation is "(middle-classed people) who fill their refrigerators to excess", or even better "(middle-classed people) and their overfilled refrigerators".


It's 5:30 AM and I'm quite hungry. My overfilled refrigerator has some leftover potatoes, leftover steak, some cheese, some mushrooms, some onions, some jalapeños, and some eggs. I need to make myself an omelet. Making omelets is one of those critical skills I learned in college. Not in any classes I took. I learned that skill because I had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. I'm rather proud of my overfilled refrigerator right now.

 

[nil1996]

The poet is using an overfilled refrigerator as a metaphor. Aside: I'm not thrilled with the given translation "(middle classed people) who overwhelm the refrigerator". That's too literal a translation, and as such it misses the intent. A better translation is "(middle-classed people) who fill their refrigerators to excess", or even better "(middle-classed people) and their overfilled refrigerators".

\
well i am trying to find answers of the following questions:Pick out the line which means the middle class people imitate the rich.

My answer:I think the line is "what are you...this world " because middle class people compare themselves with the rich ones and hence start acting like them.Right?

 

[Astronuc]

Pick out the line which means the middle class people imitate the rich.

My answer:I think the line is "what are you...this world " because middle class people compare themselves with the rich ones and hence start acting like them.Right?

Or perhaps the writer insinuates that the middle-class aspire to be rich, as much as some wealthy aspire to be wealthier.

An overwhelmed (or well stocked/stuffed) refrigerator is an indicator of a certain level of comfort (or satiation), i.e., a state in which one does not have to worry about food. Food insecurity is a big deal for too many people, not to mention the lack of nutrition and its affect on the development of the brain or education. Chronic hunger distracts one from learning or enjoying life.

I would imagine the write is expressing some level of contempt at those who have achieved the level of comfort that perhaps leads them to be somewhat indifferent to the 'struggle' or to the poor whom the communists believe must be uplifted.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Read it again. It is damning with faint praise. Is an overfilled refrigerator, a colorful umbrella next to a swimming pool that will never be a worthy virtue, given that these people, in the mind of the poet, have been stripped of their laurels, their medals, their titles, and their names?

There's a whole other layer of emotion going on beneath the apparent surface criticism. It's quite possible to love and be attached to something that's full of flaws, and it is the 'job' of the poet, so to speak, to be able to express apparent contradictions like that; affection for flawed things, nostalgia for bad times, fascination for what's frightening.

Consider another Pablo Neruda poem:

Cat's Dream

How neatly a cat sleeps,
sleeps with its paws and its posture,
sleeps with its wicked claws,
and with its unfeeling blood,
sleeps with all the rings--
a series of burnt circles--
which have formed the odd geology
of its sand-colored tail.

I should like to sleep like a cat,
with all the fur of time,
with a tongue rough as flint,
with the dry sex of fire;
and after speaking to no one,
stretch myself over the world,
over roofs and landscapes,
with a passionate desire
to hunt the rats in my dreams.

I have seen how the cat asleep
would undulate, how the night
flowed through it like dark water;
and at times, it was going to fall
or possibly plunge into
the bare deserted snowdrifts.
Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
like a tiger's great-grandfather,
and would leap in the darkness over
rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Sleep, sleep cat of the night,
with episcopal ceremony
and your stone-carved moustache.
Take care of all our dreams;
control the obscurity
of our slumbering prowess
with your relentless heart
and the great ruff of your tail.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cat-s-dream/

If you ask yourself whether he's criticizing the cat or admiring it, and falsely suppose the answer is one or the other, you'll misunderstand the poem.

 

[Enigman]

I am not sure if 'brother' is a general epithet or his literal half brother Rudolfo, I favour the former. Middle class brother seems bit too awkward a phrasing for one's real brother.
(But the most spanish I can manage resembles garbled french with lots of si thrown in, so I may very well be mistaken.)
Overall I am inclined to agree with DH's interpretation. Neruda was a potent political force in Chile and I am not sure if he would write affectionately about the flaws (perceived or otherwise) of his country.

"Look around—there's only one thing of danger for you here—poetry."
-Neruda during a search of his home.

@nil I think the relevant line's the one about overstuffed refrigerator and umbrellas without pools.

 

[256bits]

Or perhaps the writer insinuates that the middle-class aspire to be rich, as much as some wealthy aspire to be wealthier.

An overwhelmed (or well stocked/stuffed) refrigerator is an indicator of a certain level of comfort (or satiation), i.e., a state in which one does not have to worry about food. Food insecurity is a big deal for too many people, not to mention the lack of nutrition and its affect on the development of the brain or education. Chronic hunger distracts one from learning or enjoying life.

I would imagine the write is expressing some level of contempt at those who have achieved the level of comfort that perhaps leads them to be somewhat indifferent to the 'struggle' or to the poor whom the communists believe must be uplifted.

I would agree, and with DH who puts the poem in context at the time of writing

I take the refrigerator to represent basic necessities and its being full as that requirement for life as having been fullfilled. So what do they do with any extra they have - spend it on frivolous items that that have no meaning ( colored umbrellas without a pool ).
This is the little rich people's attempt to be happy( luxury), but it is all mistaken ( supreme luxury).
And he asks the rhetorical question, who are we to decide what is right in the world, but since he does ask, he also knows the answer, which he explains as he continues.

As an aside, class struggle will put people into certain groups - nobility, wealthy ( the high class burgueses, land owners), the not so weathy but comfortable (pequeños burgueses suburban), workers, peasants. The 'masses' would normally be the middle class and the workers, and theoretically have the most political power by shear number.

It is much better to read in original spanish and do your own translation than the one given earlier in the opening post, as that is not the best.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Overall I am inclined to agree with DH's interpretation. Neruda was a potent political force in Chile and I am not sure if he would write affectionately about the flaws (perceived or otherwise) of his country.

Read more of his stuff:

A Dog Has Died

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship...

rest of the poem:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dog-has-died/

His poem about the middle class is just like the one about the cat and this about the dog. He appreciates them in these poems, appreciates in the sense of a: and c:

a : to grasp the nature, worth, quality, or significance of
b : to value or admire highly <appreciates our work>
c : to judge with heightened perception or understanding : be fully aware of
d : to recognize with gratitude <certainly appreciates your kindness>

He's not being derogatory to the cat, dog, or middle class. Appreciating the flaws of a thing is not the same as disparaging, belittling, or disrespecting it. He is simply grasping their nature.

 

[Evo]

I don't believe in a heaven for humans, but I hope there is one for animals.

 

[Enigman]

Really Zshoe, does this guy strike you as some one who would appreciate mediocrity of the bourgeois during the times of strife?
No, of course he isn't belittling them. Yes, he's grasping their nature. And then he's mourning the loss of the heroic in the last few lines and futility of the bourgeois. It's a wakeup call to his countrymen not appreciation nor depreciation. This is a guy who fought for change for a major chunk of his life
So let's let him explain himself.

I'm Explaining a Few Things

You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?
and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?
and the rain repeatedly spattering
its words and drilling them full
of apertures and birds?
I'll tell you all the news.

I lived in a suburb,
a suburb of Madrid, with bells,
and clocks, and trees.

From there you could look out
over Castille's dry face:
a leather ocean.
My house was called
the house of flowers, because in every cranny
geraniums burst: it was
a good-looking house
with its dogs and children.
Remember, Raul?
Eh, Rafel? Federico, do you remember
from under the ground
my balconies on which
the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth?
Brother, my brother!
Everything
loud with big voices, the salt of merchandises,
pile-ups of palpitating bread,
the stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue
like a drained inkwell in a swirl of hake:
oil flowed into spoons,
a deep baying
of feet and hands swelled in the streets,
metres, litres, the sharp
measure of life,
stacked-up fish,
the texture of roofs with a cold sun in which
the weather vane falters,
the fine, frenzied ivory of potatoes,
wave on wave of tomatoes rolling down the sea.

And one morning all that was burning,
one morning the bonfires
leapt out of the earth
devouring human beings --
and from then on fire,
gunpowder from then on,
and from then on blood.
Bandits with planes and Moors,
bandits with finger-rings and duchesses,
bandits with black friars spattering blessings
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children's blood.

Jackals that the jackals would despise,
stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out,
vipers that the vipers would abominate!

Face to face with you I have seen the blood
of Spain tower like a tide
to drown you in one wave
of pride and knives!

Treacherous
generals:
see my dead house,
look at broken Spain :
from every house burning metal flows
instead of flowers,
from every socket of Spain
Spain emerges
and from every dead child a rifle with eyes,
and from every crime bullets are born
which will one day find
the bull's eye of your hearts.

And you'll ask: why doesn't his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?

Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!
-Pablo Neruda

Not the words someone content with just grasping the mediocrity of the middle class.

 

[matt24]

The author wants to stress that even in middle class there is sorrow and not all are like bed of roses.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Really Zshoe, does this guy strike you as some one who would appreciate mediocrity of the bourgeois during the times of strife?
No, of course he isn't belittling them. Yes, he's grasping their nature. And then he's mourning the loss of the heroic in the last few lines and futility of the bourgeois. It's a wakeup call to his countrymen not appreciation nor depreciation. This is a guy who fought for change for a major chunk of his life
So let's let him explain himself.

Not the words someone content with just grasping the mediocrity of the middle class.

This poem ("I'm explaining...") is not a wake up call. It's a 'poet's apology'. "Apology" in the sense of 2a:

1. An acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense.
2.
a. A formal justification or defense.
b. An explanation or excuse:

There's a difference between saying "This tragedy shaped my poetry." and "This tragedy shaped my politics." He's only saying the former here, explaining why his poetry is not all pretty flowers and golden sunsets. It is not a pro-communist or political polemic, as such. Notice that. He's not explaining why his poetry is so political. That's a non-issue since no one has accused him of that. He seems only to have been accused of not writing about pretty things.

The poem "Suburbs" is a "wake up call", but not in the sense you claim. It is only such in the sense all poems are. The point is to lead the reader to some new viewpoint or insight or appreciation. Consider the recently discussed Hesse poem, which could accurately be construed as a (rather kind and gentle) wake up call. Most good poems fall into this category.

The reason it is not justified to interpret lines like "Who overwhelm the refrigerator/ and position colourful umbrellas near the garden that longs for a pool..." as anti-bourgeoisie statements is the same reason lines like:

...sleeps with its wicked claws,
and with its unfeeling blood...

and:

His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority...

should not be interpreted as anti-cat or anti-dog statements.

Really Zshoe, does this guy strike you as some one who would appreciate mediocrity of the bourgeois during the times of strife?

Yes, he could. For the same reason he's obviously going to miss his aloof dog, and for the same reason he wishes he could sleep like the cat. What everyone's missing in their reading of "Suburbs" is his assertion that the middle class has it's finger on the pulse of "truth". They have it right: the pursuit of petty luxury and advancement is natural and deeply human. I don't get any sense he's a communist because he hates the middle class. Rather, it's the only practical antidote to the powers that upset his, or Spain's, or Chile's middle class dream.

 

[Enigman]

This poem ("I'm explaining...") is not a wake up call. It's a 'poet's apology'. "Apology" in the sense of 2a:

1. An acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense.
2.
a. A formal justification or defense.
b. An explanation or excuse:

There's a difference between saying "This tragedy shaped my poetry." and "This tragedy shaped my politics." He's only saying the former here, explaining why his poetry is not all pretty flowers and golden sunsets. It is not a pro-communist or political polemic, as such. Notice that. He's not explaining why his poetry is so political. That's a non-issue since no one has accused him of that. He seems only to have been accused of not writing about pretty things.

And? I was pointing out that character of the poet was not one to just to sit there grasping the situation. The poem is full of righteous indignation and reproach that someone would even expect that he would write about feel good things.

The poem "Suburbs" is a "wake up call", but not in the sense you claim. It is only such in the sense all poems are. The point is to lead the reader to some new viewpoint or insight or appreciation. Consider the recently discussed Hesse poem, which could accurately be construed as a (rather kind and gentle) wake up call. Most good poems fall into this category.

And the insight being? The bourgeois live a mundane existence under tiresome bosses only to excessively fill the fridges, put on redundant umbrellas and idly brag about things 'as long as they can't be seen or heard'- that insight?

The reason it is not justified to interpret lines like "Who overwhelm the refrigerator/ and position colourful umbrellas near the garden that longs for a pool..." as anti-bourgeoisie statements is the same reason lines like:
[...]

DH in #7
'One of the key mistranslations here is "pequeños burgueses suburban" into "suburban middle-class people". That translation doesn't quite capture the somewhat derogatory nature of "pequeños burgueses suburban", particularly to someone like Neruda.'

The language then does justify as anti-bourgeois statement.

Yes, he could. For the same reason he's obviously going to miss his aloof dog, and for the same reason he wishes he could sleep like the cat.

Apples and oranges. Pets are adorable, self-conceited humans aren't.

What everyone's missing in their reading of "Suburbs" is his assertion that the middle class has it's finger on the pulse of "truth". They have it right: the pursuit of petty luxury and advancement is natural and deeply human.

Agreed and when these tendencies go against Neruda's sense of greater good, the more the reason for Neruda to give a wake up call.

I don't get any sense he's a communist because he hates the middle class. Rather, it's the only practical antidote to the powers that upset his, or Spain's, or Chile's middle class dream.

Hate is too strong a word... disappointed fits better. Yes, the people are the antidote, so imagine his frustration when they are too busy to help their own country...

Can I know which line(s) is it exactly that is giving you the impression that you have?
P.S. I love the word bourgeois...I could say it all day... Christie used it to describe Poirot... that and "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep".

 

[zoobyshoe]

And? I was pointing out that character of the poet was not one to just to sit there grasping the situation. The poem is full of righteous indignation and reproach that someone would even expect that he would write about feel good things.

The "and" is, that he doesn't make a habit of writing political poems. He writes human poems. "Suburbs" is not an exception to that, nor is "I'm explaining..."

And the insight being? The bourgeois live a mundane existence under tiresome bosses only to excessively fill the fridges, put on redundant umbrellas and idly brag about things 'as long as they can't be seen or heard'- that insight?

The insight being the petite bourgeoisie is not the force of evil in the world it is normally made out to be in communism. He is accepting their humanity, embracing them with all their flaws.

DH in #7
'One of the key mistranslations here is "pequeños burgueses suburban" into "suburban middle-class people". That translation doesn't quite capture the somewhat derogatory nature of "pequeños burgueses suburban", particularly to someone like Neruda.'

The language then does justify as anti-bourgeois statement.

No. He uses the term in this context: "My petite bourgeois brother...". You may well be right he meant it generically, rather than specifically, but whomever he's speaking to he is siding with them:

"We heroes and poor devils..."
"We with our small vanities..."
"In a corner, we forgotten..."
He's downright shifted from talking to the middle class from the outside to himself as a member of it! It's an acceptance, an embrace.

Apples and oranges. Pets are adorable, self-conceited humans aren't.

This is your attitude, not Nerida's. For his, read the two animal poems.

Agreed and when these tendencies go against Neruda's sense of greater good, the more the reason for Neruda to give a wake up call.

You are projecting a "greater sense of good" onto him that isn't evident in the poem.

Hate is too strong a word... disappointed fits better. Yes, the people are the antidote, so imagine his frustration when they are too busy to help their own country...

You're speculating that he must be having feelings that aren't expressed in the poem. You don't have to do that. It's clear he's quite in touch with, and articulate about, his feelings.

Can I know which line(s) is it exactly that is giving you the impression that you have?

Every line! He just isn't saying anything damning. It all adds up to a grasp of, an appreciation of, the flawed human nature of the middle class, and I do see affection in his identification of himself with them. I don't see him as disappointed in the middle class any more than he's disappointed in his dog or the cat, about both of which he makes some less than flattering remarks. It's not a wake up call. More like an offering of condolence on the occasion of their thwarted dreams. There's not a hint of, "Now let's all pull together under the hammer and sickle and fight the tyrant!" Not a hint of it.

 

[Enigman]

For the claim Neruda don't do political poems...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/454550.Spain_in_Our_Hearts_Espana_En_El_Corazon
He did both surrealist (cat, dog and apples) and overtly political manifestoes (this, Canto, Explaining,oranges)About assertion about wE:
Neruda often used 'I' to denote the whole of common people, here he's just using 'we' in the same sense.For the rest:
Seems to be too old an debate to be resolved today:

In an essay entitled "Pablo Neruda and Verdadismo " Stephen Hart says; "Critics, of course, routinely split Neruda's work into two halves: on the one hand there is the pre-political poetry (1924-37) and, on the other, the committed poetry (1937-73)" (256). Greg Dawes* says the following about this split in criticism: "Two very different groups of critics wrote on Neruda's work from the 1940s to the 1980s. The first group concentrated primarily on poetic form and either ignored Neruda's politics or did not consider the well-known attraction to Marxism among the intellectuals and artists of Neruda's generation" (26). Critics focused on poetic form primarily discuss Neruda's earlier work like Twenty Poems of Love and Residence land II. The critics concerned with the historical and Marxist influences tend to focus on Canto General written in 1950.
http://www.skachate.com/docs/index-525488.html
*From Dawes, Greg. Verses Against the Darkness: Pablo Neruda's Poetry and Politics. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2006.

What's my avatar by the way?

 

[zoobyshoe]

For the claim Neruda don't do political poems...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/454550.Spain_in_Our_Hearts_Espana_En_El_Corazon
He did both surrealist (cat, dog and apples) and overtly political manifestoes (this, Canto, Explaining,oranges)

Amazon doesn't offer a look into that book, so I can't see if I'd call what's in it "political." This is what I consider political:

Arise, children of the Fatherland
The day of glory has arrived!
Tyranny's bloody banner
Is raised against us.
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They're coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons and women! etc. etc.

This, by Neruda, on the other hand is a human poem:

The Dictators

An odor has remained among the sugarcane:
a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating
petal that brings nausea.
Between the coconut palms the graves are full
of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles.
The delicate dictator is talking
with top hats, gold braid, and collars.
The tiny palace gleams like a watch
and the rapid laughs with gloves on
cross the corridors at times
and join the dead voices
and the blue mouths freshly buried.
The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant
whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth,
whose large blind leaves grow even without light.
Hatred has grown scale on scale,
blow on blow, in the ghastly water of the swamp,
with a snout full of ooze and silence

The difference being that the former is lurid two dimensional demagoguery conceived purely for political purposes, and the latter is a three dimensional work of art. The political message in the latter does not take precedence over the art the way it does in the former and in, say, the plays and song lyrics of Bertold Brecht*. The latter is a human poem by a human poet outraged by a political situation.

So, I would like to see something considered unequivocally political by him to see whether he descends into demagoguery or indoctrination, or maintains his poetic standard.

Neruda often used 'I' to denote the whole of common people, here he's just using 'we' in the same sense.

If he used "I" to denote the whole of common people, it would mean he identified with them, no? Likewise with "we".

For the rest:
Seems to be too old an debate to be resolved today:

In an essay entitled "Pablo Neruda and Verdadismo " Stephen Hart says; "Critics, of course, routinely split Neruda's work into two halves: on the one hand there is the pre-political poetry (1924-37) and, on the other, the committed poetry (1937-73)" (256). Greg Dawes* says the following about this split in criticism: "Two very different groups of critics wrote on Neruda's work from the 1940s to the 1980s. The first group concentrated primarily on poetic form and either ignored Neruda's politics or did not consider the well-known attraction to Marxism among the intellectuals and artists of Neruda's generation" (26). Critics focused on poetic form primarily discuss Neruda's earlier work like Twenty Poems of Love and Residence land II. The critics concerned with the historical and Marxist influences tend to focus on Canto General written in 1950.
http://www.skachate.com/docs/index-525488.html
*From Dawes, Greg. Verses Against the Darkness: Pablo Neruda's Poetry and Politics. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2006.

It would seem to me the fact his politics is so ignorable by critics is because the fineness of his poetry trumps the message. Brecht (see below) did a lot of weird experimentation to find ways to sort of kill the art of his plays so the audience would only hear the message. Brecht was primarily a political agitator and theater was a mere vehicle for that.

*"From his late twenties Brecht remained a lifelong committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his "epic theatre", synthesized and extended the experiments of Erwin Piscator and Vsevolod Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism.

Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht thought that the experience of a climactic catharsis of emotion left an audience complacent. Instead, he wanted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognise social injustice and exploitation and to be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change in the world outside. For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself. By highlighting the constructed nature of the theatrical event, Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was equally constructed and, as such, was changeable." -Wiki

He coached his actors, for instance, to alienate the audience with a kind of artificial acting style he called, "alienated acting." He didn't want them sucked into the story, or to be able to forget they were watching a play.

That, to me, is the epitome of a political artist: someone who whores the medium out to indoctrinate. I don't get this vibe from Neruda at all, nor do I see a demagogue.

 

[BobG]

Read it again. It is damning with faint praise. Is an overfilled refrigerator, a colorful umbrella next to a swimming pool that will never be a worthy virtue, given that these people, in the mind of the poet, have been stripped of their laurels, their medals, their titles, and their names?



Perhaps. The poet however does not agree with that mindset. In the poet's eyes, the brother has been duped into thinking that an overfilled refrigerator and a colorful umbrella next to a swimming pool that will never be are signs of success.



Refrigerador in Spanish and refrigerator in English are the same concept. It's that box into which one jams lots of perishable foods so it doesn't perish as quickly as it would were it not cooled.

The poet is using an overfilled refrigerator as a metaphor. Aside: I'm not thrilled with the given translation "(middle classed people) who overwhelm the refrigerator". That's too literal a translation, and as such it misses the intent. A better translation is "(middle-classed people) who fill their refrigerators to excess", or even better "(middle-classed people) and their overfilled refrigerators".


It's 5:30 AM and I'm quite hungry. My overfilled refrigerator has some leftover potatoes, leftover steak, some cheese, some mushrooms, some onions, some jalapeños, and some eggs. I need to make myself an omelet. Making omelets is one of those critical skills I learned in college. Not in any classes I took. I learned that skill because I had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. I'm rather proud of my overfilled refrigerator right now.

In the US, it would probably refer to all of the stuff people cover their refrigerators with. A lot of parents use the fridge to post good report cards, little charts with stars for acheivements, etc...

https://www.google.com/search?q=ref...PlsASy7oDwBg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&biw=1008&bih=598

I guess his feelings on umbrellas in a yard with no pool means aspiring to more status.

Seeing as how the original was written in a different language, I'm a little hesitant to just assume that using the family refrigerator as the family bulletin board is a universal practice, but that translation certainly supports the overall spirit of the poem better than overstocking the fridge with food, as having plenty of food would surely be a worthwhile goal.

The use of a refrigerator door as the family bragging site seemingly being more important than its contents is a very strong comment on the middle-class.

And, for the record, my refrigerator door has lots of advertising magnets that I've somehow accumulated for free from one place or another, a very stupid looking post-it-note style tablet of grocery lists (pink, with a snowman on each list) that I received at a party as a gag gift (I've had this for over 4 years now and I think I've actually used 3 sheets), miscellaneous photos from relatives (I won't say which since, if they ever saw my refrigerator door, they'd be insulted to have their photo wind up there), and then, finally, the lower, much more important part of the refrigerator door. The lower part has the alphabet in magnetic letters and crayon drawings attached to the door with one of the many magnets I've accumulated. The lower part of the door belongs to the grandkids and they handle the posting of pictures to that part of the refrigerator door.