Pablo Neruda, The Captains' Verse: Love Poems - Center for Latin ...

Classics in Context: Pablo Neruda, The Captains’ Verse: Love Poems Chicago Humanities Festival Education Programs | 2009 Curriculum Collection Page 1 / 7

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Chicago Humanities Festival Classics in Context: Pablo Neruda, The Captains’ Verse: Love Poems Page 2 / 7

About the Chicago Humanities Festival The Chicago Humanities Festival (chf) creates year-round opportunities for people of all ages, backgrounds, and economic circumstances to explore, enjoy, and support the arts and humanities. We accomplish this by presenting programs throughout the year, culminating in two annual Festivals of the Humanities, one in the spring specifically for children and families and one in the fall for the general public. The chf’s mission of providing broad access to the humanitiesat a low ticket pricedepends in part on the generosity of its most committed and enthusiastic supporters. www.chicagohumanities.org

Classics in Context Sometimes all it takes to change your mind is to consider a new perspective. Classics in Context is a seminar sequence for teachers led by renowned humanities scholars. The series takes a fresh look at universally established and contemporary literary classics. Giving teachers a chance to renew professionally and personally, the Chicago Humanities Festival supports teachers in their pursuit to revive seasoned and the contemporary classic books through study and conversation, alongside their colleagues. The following lesson plans were created by chf’s Curriculum Developer Kerry Catlin in response to a lecture by Professor Kelly Austin at the April 2009 Classics in Context session on The Captain’s Verses: Love Poems by Pablo Neruda. The program was presented in partnership with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago. Kerry Catlin has been developing curriculum for the chf since September of 2006. In the fall of 2007, she joined the English Department of Walter Payton College Prep High School after having been the Master Teacher and Curriculum Coordinator at the Lookingglass Theater Company. She received her Masters in Education from DePaul University and her Bachelors in Speech from Northwestern University. Kelly Austin, assistant professor in the Division of Humanities, studies Literature of the Americas and Translation Studies, focusing on modern and contemporary poetry. Her current research centers on Pablo Neruda and the material evidence of literary cross currents in the Americas, translations, collections and correspondence. Most recent and forthcoming publications include essays on José Donoso’s Casa de campo, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Viajes por Europa, África, y América 1845 – 1847, Mario Vargas Llosa’s El pez en el agua and Pablo Neruda’s collections. She is also a translator of Spanish American literature.


About Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager. Neruda’s pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan Neruda; Pablo is thought to be from Paul Verlaine. With his works translated into many languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Captains’ Verses” Love Poems. From Wikipeida http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pablo_Neruda&oldid=305121764 About The Captain’s Verses Pablo Neruda finished writing The Captain’s Verses in 1952 while in exile on the island of Capri – the paradisal setting for the blockbuster film Il Postino (The Postman). Surrounded by sea, sun, and Capri’s natural splendors, Neruda addressed these poems to his lover Matilde Urrutia before they were married, but didn’t publish them publicly until 1963. This complete, bilingual collection has become a classic for love-struck readers around the world – passion ately sensuous, and exploding with all the erotic energy of a new love. From Amazon.Com


1 Book of Poems After students have read The Captain’s Verses and discussed Neruda’s poetry, ask them to consider the collection of love poems as a narrative. What are the elements of a narrative? How does this collection of poems tell one story? What is the story? Consider the organization of the Table of Contents – Love, Desire, The Furies, Lives. Ask students to fill in a plot diagram for this book. For example …

1. Ask students to write five poems that follow a narrative arc or, tell a story. 2. Pre-write suggestions: ›› who is this speaker / poet? ›› What world is he or she living in? What is the political, cultural, spiritual climate? ›› What is the conflict? ›› Why does this story need to be told? 3. You may also consider inventing characters and situations. Students are assigned or randomly select their speakers and situations. 4. You may consider making books of students’ poetry. Students should: ›› illustrate each poem (drawings, photos, collages, paintings, etc) ›› create a title for the book ›› a dedication page ›› an author’s note explaining the speaker, story, and motivation for the poetry. 5. Books can be bound at school or at Kinko’s


2 Word. Sound. Image After reading The Captain’s Verses and discussing, ask students to select three poems (or you can assign three to each student). 1. Ask students to create a visual representation of each poem (photographs, video, slides, painting, film, drawings, etc.) 2. Ask students to create a soundtrack for each poem (recorded music, live music, sound effects, etc.) 3. Present. Student will recite poem while playing soundtrack and displaying images. Students may record their voice or recite live. Here are some possible poem combinations: The Son (p 39) / The Waster (p 65) / Lives (p 97) Love (p 3) / If You Forget Me (p 77) / You Would Come (p89)


3 Ode to Common Things Pablo Neruda’s Ode to Common Things celebrates and elevates everyday objects. ›› Read, look at, react to some of Neruda’s odes. For example, Ode to a pair of socks Maru Mori brought me a pair of socks that she knit with her shepherd’s hands. Two socks as soft as rabbit fur. I thrust my feet inside them as if they were two little boxes knit from threads of sunset and sheepskin.

those heavenly socks.

My feet were two woolen fish in those outrageous socks, two gangly, navy-blue sharks impaled on a golden thread, two giant blackbirds, two cannons: thus were my feet honored by

Nevertheless I fought the sharp temptation to put them away the way schoolboys put fireflies in a bottle, the way scholars hoard holy writ. I fought the mad urge to lock them in a golden

They were so beautiful I found my feet unlovable for the very first time, like two crusty old firemen, firemen unworthy of that embroidered fire, those incandescent socks.

Neruda, Pablo. Odes to Common Things. Bulfinch, May 1, 1994.

cage and feed them birdseed and morsels of pink melon every day. Like jungle explorers who deliver a young deer of the rarest species to the roasting spit then wolf it down in shame, I stretched my feet forward and pulled on those gorgeous socks, and over them my shoes. So this is the moral of my ode: beauty is beauty twice over and good things are doubly good when you’re talking about a pair of wool socks in the dead of winter.


›› Discuss how the odes look and sound. What is an ode? ›› Discover how Neruda “odes” an object. How does he convey a love of the object? ›› Brainstorm a list of possible things to ode. What things are dear to you? What things are common but may hold a greater significance? ›› Discuss metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, and assonance. ›› Choose one object to ode. ›› Draft an ode copying Neruda’s physical structure and use of figurative and concrete language. ›› Team up with a Spanish class, a Spanish speaker, or an art class. Exhibit with Spanish odes from Spanish-speaking students. Exhibit with art created by students to match odes.