There is No Clear Light Brandi Hughes Eric

There is No Clear Light Brandi Hughes, Eric Ke, Shashank Murching, Meryl Seah

Memorial de Isla Negra The poem There is No Clear Light was written by Neruda in 1964, part of the larger collection of work, the Memorial de Isla Negra Unlike the “Whitmanesque” Canto General, which is an ode to the history of Chile and the people there, Neruda focuses more on creating a memoir and an autobiography The poems review the major events, places, and people he has seen. Written during Neruda’s autumnal period as a verse autobiography. Neruda hoped to gather all the various forms of himself.

Chile In 1952, General Carlos Ibanez won through support of right-wing coalition Ibanez’s terms achieved very little and did very little wrong Acted as a centrist, and repealed the ban of the Communist Party Jorge Alessandri won the 1960 s election for presidency, narrowly defeating Salvador Allende. National industry developed in the country Economic and social structure of Chle improved dramatically. However, two major earthquakes, caused massive destruction. Alessandri had to accept JFK’s assistance Plan

Post Canto General Vigorously attacked the United States during their role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and condemned them for their growing commitment in Vietnam. BUT: Neruda began to scale back his political rhetoric in his poetry due to his growing disillusionment with the Communist Party In 1956, Neruda began to distance himself from the Soviet Union and Stalin after learning about the “cult of personality” Neruda also became disillusioned with Red China after a visit in 1957.

Themes In Memorial de Isla Negra, Neruda focuses inwards like his Odes Tone is more personal and much more relaxed in the claims. Many beautiful and moving poems; the voice is more colloquial Named after his favorite home, “La casa de Isla Negra” Here Neruda spent most of his time after throwing his support to Allende in the 1952 elections. The book of over a hundred poems reads like a series of notes where past and present interact Very self-confronting. Neruda wrote this poem for his 60 th year birthday present

IOC ● Dominant Effect: In “There is No Clear Light, ” Pablo Neruda uses the motif of memory and time, and a theme of ambiguity about life, demonstrating his regret and nostalgia. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Lq. RZ 2_w 56 U 0

IOC Continued… Regret & Nostalgia There is no clear light, no clear shadow, in remembering. They have grown ash-gray, a grubby sidewalk crisscrossed by the endless feet of those who come in and out of the market. And there are other memories, still looking for something to bite, like fierce, unsatisfied teeth. They gnaw us to the last bone, devouring the long silence of all that lies behind. ● Theme of ambiguity (This color) ○ Nothing is clear ○ Gray color connotes murkiness and uncertainty ○ Descriptions are blurred and unclear ○ Searching for something to satiate his desire ● Motif of Memory and Time (This color) ○ Reflective ○ What lies behind is gone ○ Regrets his lack of action

IOC Continued… Regret & Nostalgia ● And everything lies behind, nights, dawns, days hanging like bridges between darknesses, cities, doors into love and rancor, as if war had broken into the store and carried off everything there, piece by piece, till through broken doors the wind blows over empty shelves and makes the eyes of oblivion dance. That’s why daylight comes with slow fire, and love, the whiff of far-off fog, and street by street the city comes back, without flags, trembling perhaps, to live in its smoke. ● Ambiguity of life (This color) ○ Darkness imagery shows the uncertainty surrounding life ○ Neruda juxtaposes darkness with daylight to create tension and show his inability to separate the two resulting in the ambiguity Motif of Memory and Time (This color) ○ Reflecting on what happened - Spanish Civil War ○ Shows how time takes everything away ○ Nostalgia for antebellum life

IOC Continued… Regret & Nostalgia Yesterday’s hours, stitched by life threaded on a bloodstained needle, between decisions endlessly unfulfilled, the infinite beat of the sea and of doubt, the quiver of the sky and its jasmine. Who is that other me, who didn’t know how to smile, who died of sheer mourning? The one who endured the bells and the carnations, destroying the lessons of the cold? ● Ambiguity of Life (This color) ○ Indecision ○ Doubts himself ○ Rhetorical questions-question his past self and past strength and challenges the audience to question him and themselves ● Memory/time motif (This color) ○ Uses metaphor to show that the past is very fragile and delicate ○ Remembering the joy and suffering of the past ○ Comparing time to water with its inevitable meeting with shore

IOC Continued… Regret and Nostalgia It’s late, but I go on, from example to example, without knowing what the moral is, because, in my many lives, I am absent. I’m here now, and I’m also the man I was, both at the same time. Perhaps that’s it, the real mystery. ● ● Ambiguity of life (This color) ○ Unsure of what he was supposed to learn from life ○ He’s unable to separate himself with his past ○ Having trouble with introspection Memory/Time motif (This color) ○ Repetition of “late” and “example” to show nostalgia and frustration ○ Lateness shows how time has passed too quickly for him to keep up ○ Unable to separate the events of his past from each other

IOC Continued… Regret and Nostalgia Life, steady flow of emptiness which filled this cup with days and shadows, all brightness buried like an old-time prince, in his own infirm and mineral shroud, until we are so behind that we don’t exist. To be, and not to be – that’s what life is. Of all that I was, I bear only these cruel scars, because those griefs confirm my very existence. ● Ambiguity of Life (This color) ○ Darkness imagery shows doubt ○ Any hope of clarity is gone ○ Eventual confirmation and certainty of existence ○ Contrast of what life is ● Memory/time motif (This color) ○ Time compared to water to show time is unstoppable and can cause erosion of memories ○ Emptiness motif shows nostalgia for what has been lost ○ Time consumes everything

no clear shadow. . .

a grubby sidewalk crisscrossed by the endless feet

They have grown ashy-gray

threaded on a bloodstained needle

the wind blows over empty shelves

trembling perhaps, to live in its smoke

like bridges between darkness

like fierce, unsatisfied teeth

There is no clear light

they all combine to create an overall image of darkness. . .