postponed for at least a decade based on his Com-
munist politics.
The Fall of Allende in Chile
In 1970, Neruda ran for president of Chile on the
Communist ticket but yielded to his friend, Salva-
dor Allende and his socialist coalition who were
democratically elected.Neruda was at the height
of his popularity, drawing huge crowds for his read-
ings. In 1971, he finally got the Nobel Prize for
Literature and returned triumphant, a hero to his
people. On another notorious September 11 (1973),
Allende was overthrown and assassinated or com-
mitted suicide, replaced by General Augusto Pino-
chet, backed in part by the Nixon administration.
Pinochet tortured and killed thousands. The shock
of the coup and news of the torture-death of artists
who were Neruda’s friends were enough to bring on
Neruda’s death by heart failure a couple of weeks
later. He lived to see repeated what he saw happen
in Spain and had spent his whole life trying to
prevent in his own country. The last pages of his
Memoirswere written three days after the coup
denouncing the overthrow.Neruda’s public funeral
was forbidden, but the people spontaneously took
to the streets to express love for the man who had
championed their cause.Critical Overview.
In his own country, Pablo Neruda was a popular
though controversial poet after the publication
of hisTwenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
(1924). He was influential in literary circles and well
known to an international public while he traveled
around the world as a Chilean diplomat. Histori-
cally, his poetry was classified in three periods: the
modernist period of the 1920s; the surrealist style of
the 1930s, and the politically motivated verse after
1936.One Hundred Love Sonnets(1959) falls in the
last period.
In English, Neruda’s reputation depends on
translations, and they were few and imperfect in
the United States until the 1950s and 1960s. Jona-
than Cohen in his article, ‘‘The Early History of
Neruda in English (1925–1937),’’ inRomance Notes
for 1982, summarized the early American views on
Neruda. The beauty of the poet’s language wasWheat and bread(Image copyright Mike Flippo, 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com)
Sonnet LXXXIX