Poetry Discussion with Janet Krauss: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Zoom)

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Event Details

Please join us online as Janet Krauss leads a discussion of a selection of poems by Pablo Neruda. A readings packet will be emailed in advance of the program.

No charge for the program. Advance registration required. Register online in order to receive the Zoom session invitation link and readings packet. Please email Michael Bellacosa at mbellacosa@wiltonlibrary.org with any questions.

Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet, known best for his odes and love poems , is still universally acclaimed.  When his “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” was published in English, he was established as an important Chilean poet. It is said that when he left the wilderness for the city of Santiago, he equated women with the force of nature in his love poems, a way of dealing with leaving his roots, his birthplace in the backwoods of Chile.

His thoughts turned to politics, and he was appointed as counsel to Spain but lost this post because he favored the Republican cause. However, he remained a political activist believing in the Communist party’s ideology; he was committed to the working class men, those of the salt mines, the builders of Macchu Picchu.  He turned away from writing political poems  in the late 1900’s to write about common, everyday things, a fruit, plant, rain with a concentrated concern.

In 1973, the Chilean Communist Party nominated Neruda for president, but he withdrew from the honor. However, he was appointed ambassador to France. At this time he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature. He died in 1973 in Chile.

He is considered above all a love poet; and  as someone said “an unwavering, powerful joyous conqueror of death.” We will examine this trait of his in his poems. Mark Strand noted the “urgency of his language... and spontaneity and directness of his passion.”

Janet Krauss, who has two books of poetry published, “Borrowed Scenery,” Yuganta Press, and “Through the Trees of Autumn,” Spartina Press, has recently retired from teaching English at Fairfield University. Her mission is to help and guide Bridgeport’s  young children through her teaching creative writing, leading book clubs and reading to and engaging a kindergarten class. As a poet, she co-directs the poetry program of the Black Rock Art Guild. Several of her poems have been published in Amethyst Review.

Event Type(s): Online Event
Age Group(s): Adults

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