Pablo Neruda

Dominic Paul Moran (University of Oxford)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

Pablo Neruda (real name Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) is Latin America's best known and, for many, greatest poet. He is also one of its most controversial. He was born in 1904 in the central Chilean town of Parral, but brought up in what was then the far-flung outpost of Temuco, deep in the southern hinterland. The dense forests, volcanoes and vast lakes which surrounded the town, as well as the desolate, storm-racked Pacific coastline which lay to the west, would leave an indelible imprint on his verse, eventually making Neruda one of the greatest nature poets in Spanish. Indeed, as a poet of the sea he can have few rivals in any language.

He started to write poetry from a very early age (his earliest published …

4196 words

Citation: Moran, Dominic Paul. "Pablo Neruda". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3321, accessed 28 March 2024.]

3321 Pablo Neruda 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.