Poetry by Pablo Neruda

                    The Wings of Creativity 

 The 'Poetry' is a well known poem written by the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. The poem deals with the ecstatic experience of the poet embraced by the poetic creativity. Throughout the poem, the poet personifies the poetry as a human being. At the very beginning of the poem, the poet says that poetry arrived in search of him. But he did not know where it came from, or how or when. He did not hear any voices speaking to him. He says he was summoned from the branches of night. He states that poetry gave him an identity, and meaning to his life.

The poet feels that Something has started in his soul, like a fever, and he made his own way, deciphering the "fire of poetry." Then he wrote his first faint, substance-free line. Suddenly, the heavens opened before him and he could see everything in the planets like the shadows, fire, arrows and flowers etc.. It means that by the arrival of poetic inspiration, his imagination became boundless. 

Although he was a tiny being, by the touch of poetry, he was elevated to a world of ecstasy, felt of himself a pure part of the abyss and was set free to wheel with the stars. He describes the whole experience as his "heart breaking loose on the wind." 

The poet wrote the poem in 'free verse style. Its tone is passion or ecstasy . The lines ‘The poetry arrived in search of the poet and touched him’ give a clear picture of the use of personification. The words ‘Winter’ and ‘river’ makes a contrasting idea. Application of Alliteration can be seen in lines, “and something started in my soul, / fever or forgotten wings” and “planets,/palpitating plantations,”. The phrases like flowers, violent fires, the branches of night, the heavens, wings, planets, plantations are perfect examples for visual images.