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    Pablo Neruda's poem "The Way Spain Was" examines Spain during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. The poem describes Spain as a "taut, dry drum-head" that was beaten down like the "Flatlands" or an "eagle's nest". Neruda saw Spain endure great hardships, with widespread poverty resulting in harsh circumstances and lack of food. The poem contrasts Spain's former richness with its current state, "streaked / With blood and metals". While mourning what was lost, Neruda promises not to forget Spain's former "beauty of life" and "lost flower of your villages". The poem exemplifies how Neruda's Third Residence collection innovated while maintaining

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    “THE WAY SPAIN WAS”

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    Pablo Neruda's poem "The Way Spain Was" examines Spain during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. The poem describes Spain as a "taut, dry drum-head" that was beaten down like the "Flatlands" or an "eagle's nest". Neruda saw Spain endure great hardships, with widespread poverty resulting in harsh circumstances and lack of food. The poem contrasts Spain's former richness with its current state, "streaked / With blood and metals". While mourning what was lost, Neruda promises not to forget Spain's former "beauty of life" and "lost flower of your villages". The poem exemplifies how Neruda's Third Residence collection innovated while maintaining

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    957 views2 pages

    The Way Spain Was

    Uploaded by

    avishek saha
    Pablo Neruda's poem "The Way Spain Was" examines Spain during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. The poem describes Spain as a "taut, dry drum-head" that was beaten down like the "Flatlands" or an "eagle's nest". Neruda saw Spain endure great hardships, with widespread poverty resulting in harsh circumstances and lack of food. The poem contrasts Spain's former richness with its current state, "streaked / With blood and metals". While mourning what was lost, Neruda promises not to forget Spain's former "beauty of life" and "lost flower of your villages". The poem exemplifies how Neruda's Third Residence collection innovated while maintaining

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    of 2

    “THE WAY SPAIN WAS”: Critical Appreciation

    “You will ask:


    why does your poetry not speak to us of sleep, of the leaves,
    of the great volcanoes of your native land?
    Come and see the blood in the streets”—Neruda, “I Explain a Few Things”
    Clayton Eshleman wrote in the introduction to Cesar Vallejo’s Poemas humanos or
    Human Poems that “Neruda found in the third book of Residencia the key to becoming
    the 20th-century South American poet: the revolutionary stance which always changes
    with the tides of time.” “The Way Spain Was”, an important poem from Tercera
    Residencia or the Third Residence (1947), seems like a harsh examination of the social
    and political issues of his day, but done from a place of respect and concern for the
    future. A Chilean by birth, Pablo Neruda came to love his adopted country of Spain and
    even fought in the Spanish Civil War that lasted from 1936 to 1939.
    “The Way Spain Was” describes the duelling natures of Spain during the years of
    the Spanish Civil War and mourns the evanescence of Spain’s rich, glorious past and also
    recounts the tragedy that has befallen its people owing to Fascist forces which he refers
    to as “an imbecile God”. In the first stanza of this piece the speaker begins by using a
    metaphor to describe the state of Spain. It is said be a “taut, dry drum-head.” The “drum
    beat” of the nation reminds one of the Civil War that shook the very basis of the national
    life. Neruda asserts his sympathy and solidarity with its “barren soil”, “rough bread” and
    “stricken people”.
    It is clear that Neruda sees Spain as having endured a great number of hardships. It
    was “lashed” or beaten just as a storm lashes the “Flatlands” or an “eagle’s nest” high on
    a hillside. Widespread poverty among the farmers and labourers has resulted in harsh
    circumstances and a lack of food and comfort.
    According to Neruda, the Spaniard has a bittersweet existence, witnessing on one
    hand the beauty of Spanish culture, language, art, food and terrain, and on the other,
    deplorable poverty and violence. Spain has been made to follow a downward trajectory,
    starting from a point in history where it was rich with mineral deposit to the present day
    where it is “streaked / With blood and metals”. As Ajanta Dutt aptly posits, “The softness
    and violence always interconnected are most vividly presented in the final image of
    ‘petals and bullets’ where the incorporation of the word ‘proletariat’ affirms that Neruda
    is fighting for a cause.” Neruda avers his love for the land and promises never to forget
    the beauty of life that once characterised Spain – “the lost flower of your villages”.
    “Viewed as a whole,” Yudin wrote, “Tercera Residencia illustrates a fluid
    coherence of innovation with retrospective, creativity with continuity, that would
    characterize Neruda’s entire career.” “The Way Spain Was” embodies this very
    coherence.
    480

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