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Alejandro Martinez
ENG 1101-0403
10/14/14
LOVE IS A PROCESS
Have you ever asked what is it that keeps a relationship of an old men and an old women
together in their lives?. You probably have a notion of what the answer could be. In fact, there are
many factors that should be consider in order to say what exactly makes a relationship last for
long. Today, we are not going to explain nor investigate all those factors, instead we will
appreciate something related but, in a different way. To put it in another way, this time you are
about to enjoy of art through a poem that amazingly shows the feelings and, at the same time,
hard times that a relationship may go through, if it is made to last forever, as you might have seen
on movies or heard on old stories narrated by your grandparents. The poem "If you forget me" by
Pablo Neruda is based on love, resignation and reconciliation.
Love is one of the themes used by Pablo Neruda in his poem “If you forget me” and he
express it on a very different way throughout his poem. Love is hard to describe for some but easy
to express by some others for another person or almost anything, like Pablo Neruda. His poem, "If
you forget me" shows love with very strong expressions that come out at the very beginning of
any relationship on the "fall in love" period. To begin, let's introduce the first two clarification
sentences of the poem that say: "I want you to know One thing, You know how this is:" These two
sentences show that there are two persons, one talking to the other. When we read these two
sentences, we can feel how the person talking shows domination, authority or power if you want
to. Here, we can infer that a men is talking to or referring to someone. The following lines, from
the same poem "If you forget me" by Pablo Neruda, come with important meanings. The first
example is: "..If I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log,
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everything carries me to you…" as we can see, Neruda refer to the other person, which can be
infer to be a women, very romantically using some elements from the environment such as:
"fire(ash), and log". To illustrate that, we can think of love as an emotion that can only be felt
naturally such as the energy felt in our hands caused by the fire. That is something natural too!. On
the other hand, we can also see that the poem refers to being in love with someone more clearly
with the second phrase: "…everything carries me to you…". This is how Pablo Neruda shows the
theme love on the first stanza.
Along with all the romance and love, resignation also form part of the poem of Pablo
Neruda, “If you forget me”, as something that happens naturally. Resignation is one the stages
from many of the obstacles that long relationships have to deal with. Sometimes, we think that in
long lasting relationships, where the man and woman understand each other, love resolve all the
problems, without thinking of others or different factors that also lead it to last for longer.
Furthermore, people can feel resigned when something really bad happens, like losing a close
familiar, or breaking with the person you love. For example, by a quote from the poem "If you
forget me" by Pablo Neruda that says: "…If suddenly you forget me, do not look for me, for I shall
already have forgotten you…", we can observe how the poet tries to show us that at some point un
life, there a moment where we have to resign and accept what we are seen with our own eyes.
Here, in the poem, the writer express that idea when he says: "…do not look for me, for I shall
already have forgotten you…" meaning by the fact that "she" decided to leave him, he resigned to
continue to think about her and that's why he says: "…for I shall already have forgotten you…"
restating his own personal decision. This is how the poem of Pablo Neruda, "If you forget me"
shows resignation through a few words that represent another stage of love on the trial the
relationship to last for an entire life.
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Reconciliation is shown in the poem “If you forget me” by Pablo Neruda” to
demonstrates that it can be obtained after the light of truly love remains alive. There is a said that
goes like this: "Everything is possible with the truly love". and many people don’t believe in love
like this, which is fine, however there is people that do believe on this. Actually, in our poem, "If
you forget me" by Pablo Neruda, we can also appreciate how love demonstrates to be the key to
solve most of the problems of life that appear when we never expected them. For instance, a quote
from his poem show us love, being the reason to make two people remind together above all
circumstances, it goes like this: " …But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for
me with implacable sweetness … ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me
nothing is extinguished or forgotten…". At this point we can feel how the poet tries to show that
only one thing can make him change of mind from whatever thing that had happened in the past.
Basically, he states that if "she" continues to loving him with so much passion, a reconciliation is
possible and he can undoubtedly forgives her and let her love him again. Finally, we could see
how the author was able to teach us about reconciliation on this last stanza as something that have
different stages and that it is possible get through them with authentic love.
The Poem of Pablo Neruda "If you forget me" by Pablo Neruda shows us how love,
resignation and reconciliation are part of this misterios process for long lasting relationships and
that many times it is impossible to override them. As we can see on this piece of art, feelings are
being brought out from people like us that faces challenges every day and that every time they are
fighting against the obstacle of life.