Neruda: Selected Poems

What is the poetry of passion, politics, and everyday life? Pablo Neruda's Selected Poems presents the essential works of one of the most beloved and widely-read poets in history—a Chilean Nobel laureate whose passionate voice spoke for an entire continent and reached more readers than perhaps any poet before him. Neruda (1904-1973) succeeded in becoming what he called a "public voice," writing poetry that embraced all of life with equal intensity: erotic love and political struggle, ordinary objects and epic landscapes, personal intimacy and historical consciousness. His work embodies what he called "impure poetry"—verse that includes everything, from the sublime to the mundane, from declarations of love to political beliefs, from prophesies to taxes. Neruda's voice is passionate, sensuous, politically engaged, and profoundly human.

This essential collection, selected by Neruda himself, spans his entire career and showcases his many poetic modes: passionate love poems from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (including "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines"); the epic spiritual journey of "The Heights of Machu Picchu"; playful odes celebrating ordinary things like tomatoes, socks, and salt; political poetry addressing injustice and championing the voiceless; and intimate meditations on nature, desire, and mortality. Presented side-by-side in English and Spanish, these poems reveal Neruda's "entranced absorption in everything around him, human and natural," his voice by turns loving and scathing, celebratory and prophetic. He writes with the conviction that poetry must engage fully with life in all its complexity and contradiction.

For contemplative readers, Neruda's poetry offers profound meditation on passion, presence, and engagement with the world. His work asks: How do we embrace life fully, in all its beauty and injustice? What does it mean to be present to ordinary things with complete attention? How do we balance personal love with political commitment? What is the poet's obligation to speak for those who have no voice? Neruda's verse becomes a companion for passionate engagement—teaching us to love fiercely, notice deeply, speak truthfully, and embrace the "impure" fullness of human experience.

What You'll Discover
Neruda's essential selected poems (1904-1973)
Famous works: "Tonight I Can Write," "The Heights of Machu Picchu," odes
Love poetry, political verse, and celebrations of ordinary life
Bilingual edition with English and Spanish side-by-side
Contemplative insights into passion, presence, and engagement
Nobel Prize-winning voice of Latin American poetry

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was born in southern Chile and became one of the twentieth century's most influential poets. A diplomat, political activist, and "poet of the people," he served as Chilean ambassador to France and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. His Twenty Love Poems became a bible for lovers in the Spanish-speaking world, while his political poetry championed social justice and gave voice to the voiceless. This bilingual edition, with poems selected by Neruda himself, presents the richness and variety of his many poetic selves.

Perfect for: Readers of contemporary poetry and Latin American literature, students of Pablo Neruda and Spanish-language poetry, contemplative readers exploring passion and engagement, those interested in love poetry and political verse, anyone drawn to accessible and deeply human poetry, bilingual readers of Spanish and English, students of 20th-century world poetry and Nobel Prize literature.

Paperback edition. Neruda's essential selected poems—offering contemplative wisdom on passion, presence, and the "impure" fullness of life through the voice of Latin America's most beloved poet.