Rate-A-Poem: Ode to a Pair of Socks

[dahmnait]

By Pablo Neruda (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/279)
(1904 - 1973)

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.

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
those
heavenly
socks.
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.

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
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.

[poetinahat]

Thanks, damhnait, for bringing out a piece -- and a poet -- very new to me.

I felt like I should love this one, but I didn't. There are some delicious turns of phrase in it, but at the end, it felt a bit like observational comedy to me for some reason.

It's crammed full of metaphors, and in my view, the metaphors suffer for it. As plants in a cramped greenhouse would starve for air and each look less beautiful.

I felt the poet might have done better to stop and take a breath now and then, and let an idea shine before he plopped another on top of it.

I felt over-full and my senses dulled by the end of it. I would've enjoyed it more if I'd read it in small pieces.

[Shiraz]

I'm sorry, damnait, but I have to agree with poetinahat. You know what I liked the best about this?

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.

That's it - it stands on its own and all the stuff before it was completely unnecessary. In fact, I had to really concentrate on reading the entire thing.

BUT, this last stanza? I liked it! :)

[dahmnait]

That's ok. I actually rated it wrong. I wanted a 4 instead of a 5, but I wasn't going to delete the thing and do it all over again. A 4 because I am not fond of the style. However, I actually liked the overstuffing. I couldn't read something like this often, but something about this one made me want those socks.

I do believe that this was translated. It could be that the way it is written was affected by the translation.

This is a different style than what we have seen in most of the Rate-A-Poems, and I wanted to see what people thought. So don't apologize, your comments are what interest me. :)

[ddgryphon]

Dahmnait:

Like you I couldn't read a steady stream of this, but, like a really fine cheesecake, I truly enjoyed it. It is full of fun, warmth, and affection.

I avioded it because of the title for a bit, but in the end I'm quite glad I read it.

Thanks.

[Bret]

Philistines! I love this poem! I love Neruda! I love cheesecake and eating a whole book of it without a napkin or utensils!

I'm rereading his Odes to Common Things this summer. The odes inspired one of the poems of which I am the most proud-

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34520

admittedly, this poem has been the least popular one I posted on this site...you people hate odes! That explains it! I knew there was a reason. ;)


But really, I approve of the celebratory tone, the heroic uplifting of a pair of greatly admired socks. I find Neruda's stacking of similie and metaphor, one after the other, delightful. His odes remind me of the spirit of the great haiku poets who elevated the most mundane things. He must have read

"In everything give thanks" and taken it as a vow!

Aside from the Odes to Things, I have read and adored his Book of Questions and 100 Love Sonnets. The sonnets are the most romantic poems this side of Song of Solomon. They run a sword in your heart as if you were a bull graciously falling to the greater skills of a noble bullfighter.

He employed a great deal of beautiful and surreal imagery in the sonnets. Anyone with access to a library and who loves the sun and stars and milky way should read Neruda's love sonnets I tell you!

Now once more, give Pablo another chance! Let your hard hearts be softened with

Ode to a Lemon

From those lemon flowers
Set free
By the light of the moon
From that
Odor of a love
Frustrated,
Sunken in fragrance,
There came
From the Lemon tree its yellow,
From its planetary system
The lemons came down to the earth.

Tender merchandise!
Our shores filled up with it,
The markets
Of light, of gold
From a tree,
And we open up
The two halves
Of a miracle,
Congealed acid
Which ran
From the hemispheres
Of a star
And the most profound liquor
In nature,
Unchanging, alive,
Indestructible,
Born from the freshness
Of the lemon,
From its fragrant house,
From its acid, secret symmetry.

Inside the lemon the knives
Cut
A small
Cathedral,
The window hidden behind the altars
Opened to the light its glassy acids,
And in drops
Like topazes they were dripped
Onto the altars
By the architecture of freshness.

So when your hand
Squeezes the hemisphere
Of the cut
Lemon onto your plate,
A universe of gold,
You have poured out
One
Yellow cup
Full of miracles
One of the sweet-smelling nipples
Of the breast of the earth,
A ray of light that became a fruit,
The diminutive fire of a planet


- Pablo Neruda

[poetinahat]

Mate, if he doesn't learn spacing or carriage returns, my heart is a slate headstone.

[Bret]

I will pray for your mortal soul at once you poor wretch! ;)

[drachin8]

I now have a great desire to contemplate my own socks. Lovely poem.

:)

-Michelle