A sensual, tender collection to be cherished by lovers new and old
Pablo Neruda was probably the greatest and certainly the most prolific of twentieth-century Latin American poets. This, his third collection, Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada, or, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, was first published in 1924 and attracted international acclaim. Still adored the world over, the collection is ambitiously metaphorical and sensuous.
Inspired by Neruda's own personal relationships and injected with an expressive eroticism, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is evidence of a genius poet at work. A perfect present for your beloved on Valentine's Day.
Born Neftal-Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in southern Chile in 1904, Pablo Neruda led a life charged with poetic and political activity. His first book, Crepusculario (Twilight) was published in 1923. The following year, he published Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair), which turned him into a celebrity. In 1927 he began his long career as a diplomat, serving as Chilean consul in numerous places including Burma, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mexico and France. He was elected to the Chilean Senate in 1943 but later expelled for being a Communist. In 1952 the government withdrew the order to arrest leftist writers and political figures, and Neruda returned to Chile. For the next twenty-one years, he continued a career that integrated private and public concerns and became known as the people's poet. During this time, Neruda received numerous prestigious awards, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He died of leukemia in Santiago, Chile in 1973.
Title: Twenty Love Poems
Author: Pablo Neruda
ISBN: 9780224074414
Binding:
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication Date: 2004-07-01
Number of Pages: 68
Weight: 0.0181 kg
One of the greatest love poets of all time * Observer *
His love poems have fuelled romances around the world * Independent *
The poems today remain as urgently gorgeous as freshly picked flowers * Daily Telegraph *
The greatest poet of the 20th century -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
He was that rare thing - a public poet, and a great one, held in deep affection by every layer of Chilean society. For the skill that earned him such esteem was his ability to find beauty in ordinary things * Guardian *
