Why I love "Sonnet XVII" by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII" is one work in a collection of poems published in 1960 called 100 Love Sonnets. Neruda had a turbulent life, often having to abandon his work, country, wives, and friends to move, due to political strife in Chile or his own financial issues. He also often struggled with depression and turned inward to his work to try to convey the loneliness and longing he felt. Overall, Neruda lived a full and happy life, taking many lovers and often using those experiences to inspire his writing.

"Sonnet XVII" is most certainly a love poem but it is not a celebration of love that people usually think of. Neruda starts the poem with "I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz or arrow of carnations that the fire shoots off:” He conveys that the person he loves is not someone he wants to shout his love and admiration for, nor is she a prize to be won. There is romanticism about loving someone so deeply and so unjustifiably that you want to keep them a secret, in fear of the world taking them away. This can be seen in lines 3 and 4 "I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul." If anything it is a tale of a lustful love, one that consumes a person's whole being, and leaves its mark for many years to come.

I can relate to that immediate feeling of elation, of being engrossed by another person, of the whirlwind of a romance that you know is wrong but feels so right. I've always connected with this poem, since the first time I read it. I felt like Neruda was putting his hands into my heart and finding the words I had been trying desperately to find. My favorite line of the poem is "so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.” For me, this line is a piece of art that perfectly conveys loving someone so greatly that you feel as though you've become one person with them.

For me, the poem "Sonnet XVII" is a celebration of a love that people outside of the relationship can't understand. You have to be consumed by the fire of your love to know the feeling of never being able to understand why you love this person. There are no explanations, no words that can do it justice, except: "so I love you because I know no other way." Para usted, mi amor.