Elizabeth Nabitha Ezmeralda Rihi

174214005

A New Critical reading of “One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII” by Pablo Neruda

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

As we read it, we can sense the feeling of someone talking to a person that he falls in love
so deeply and secretly to that person, or if we may say, it might be written by Pablo Neruda to
express his love to his significant other. The senses of love can be seen by looking at the symbols
he uses to express what he wants to say in the poem.
In the first stanza, the passage in line 1 and 2 “a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of
carnations that propagate fire,” describe a very rare and beautiful things. Salt-rose, a rare rose
that grows near the ocean, topaz, a mineral that has a variety colors, and a flame looking of the
shiny carnation – a type of flower. Rose and carnation are also flowers that commonly symbolize
love, but by using a type of uncommon rose and carnation, and saying does not love the
significant other that way, tells us how he does not love her like someone loves a rare precious
thing, but he does love her in a unique way, as explained in line 3 and 4. He starting to tell her
the way he does love her; “obscure things,” “in secret, between shadow and soul.” Here,
“obscure things” might be interpreted as it is, not discovered or known about, tells us how
secretly he loves her, and only in “between shadow and soul,” might means, hiding so deeply in
the inside, and following him like his shadow.
Come to the second stanza, in the line 5 and 6, he loves her like “the plant that doesn’t
bloom, but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,” means he loves her for her
internal beauty. People often find a flower that doesn’t bloom dull and unpretty. Therefore, he
doesn’t care about it for he believes that it still has a beautiful thing hidden within itself. Like his
love to his significant other (that in here, he uses ‘as” for symbolized it.) He doesn’t care if she
looks like “death flower because couldn’t bloom”, but he loves her from the light she has hidden
Elizabeth Nabitha Ezmeralda Rihi
174214005

within herself. As for the line 7 and 8, “the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in
my body” from the plant in the previous line, resembles earthy aroma that the plant has; it can be
resembles a fresh love that has just bloom, or the passion of “new love.”
Lastly, the third stanza. Line 9 and 10, “I love you without knowing how, or when, or
from where,” has simply tells us how he can not explain why he loves his significant other. We
must be felt it too, how hard it is to explain love; it, mostly, just happened. “I love you directly
without problems or pride,” it shows the purity of the love that his got, the free from problems,
or pride. His love is humble and legit, does not want any drama in his love. In the line 11 and 12
“I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I
am not nor are you,” shows the inability of his to love her not as pure as he does, without
selfishness and pride. He loves her in order to want them to become one, and set a side their own
pride, needs, and egos in the relationships. The last lines, 13 and 14, “so close that your hand
upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.” It is a unique way to use a
metaphor; because of they have been become one, the love can make her switch one of their
parts of their body, like hers are his and his are also hers. It also tells of how there is no barrier in
the relationships.
Overall, this poem is a beautiful poem that uses a lot of symbol to express the
writer/reader’s feeling to the target. The symbols that are used are also beautiful and clear
enough to explain things out. Plus point is, the poem also speaks directly because of the first
person point-of-view that it used.