Review of Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘A dog has died’

 

Review of Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘A dog has died’

https://www.best-poems.net/pablo_neruda/a_dog_has_died.html

I request readers to read the poem from the above link first and then only my review. Thanks.

The title of Neruda’s pretty long poem is ‘A dog has died’ and not ‘My dog has died.’ Poets are very choosy about the vocabulary, phrases, expressions, metaphors and the title. Neruda has made it clear he was not possessive about the dog. The poem at the outset appears to be a fairly long obituary. But Neruda’s following expressions are very important:

1.     having lost a companion
who was never servile.

2.     was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:

3.     we don't now and never did lie to each other.

Neruda clears the mystery behind the bonding between a human and her pets. How those relationships are so harmonious and without rifts and the memories reflect a wholesome bonding feel without hollowness or hurt mixed? From Neruda’s above expressions we understand the secret of the wholesome hurt-less bonding was absence of hype about the relationship. When the life of the pet ended, there was no regret or guilt feel, or about anything not made even or anything not explained away. This way the poem transcends into the world of humans. The hype and artificialness in the communications and sharing made the relationships fragile. On the other hand a human found no need to do all these in her relationship with her pet. Modern literature in any genre revolves around the limitations in humans in building relationships or sustaining them. The poem leaves much unsaid about human relationships. So I continue to ponder whether Neruda points at possessiveness, power equations and politics in the relationships between individuals and within a family. In the name of love I harm with hype, emotions and possessiveness during my life. My end leaves poking a hole in the cobweb and the hole is plugged in due course.