The Power of Words To Explain a Few Things

Pablo Neruda's poetry is well known for its ability to bring out basic human emotions.  He believed that words have the power to explain reality.


Neruda's poem I'm Explaining a Few Things advocates for his political beliefs.  At first glance, the poem paints a beautiful and surreal picture of Spain.  It describes poppy-petalled metaphysics, bells, clocks, trees, an ocean, houses covered in flowers, dogs, and children.  After reading this picturesque description I was reminded of Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas where the utopian city was not as perfect as it seemed on the surface.  I was not surprised when the tone of the poem began to change after the mention of Neruda's friend and fellow poet Federico Garcia Lorca who was murdered the year before by Spanish Fascists.  The poem then goes on to describe the hellish war zone that Spain was at the time.


Going back to the beginning of the poem, I learned that a certain poppy flower can create opium.  An often devastating and addictive drug.  Neruda used the image of the poppy to show that that things are not always exactly as they appear.