The Four Elements in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

The poetry of Pablo Neruda conveys intense emotions through the four elements.

Pablo Neruda wrote poetry as a cry against the lonely condition of humanity—isolated from nature. His desire to connect with the essence of the natural world, which represents a great and spiritual force, manifests itself through nature metaphors. In Neruda’s writing, earth, air, water and fire permeate the sadness ironically – the elements that represent wholesomeness ultimately become symbols of loneliness.

Earth Imagery in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Earth, the all-encompassing symbol of nature, represents unattainable purity in the poetry of Neruda. In "Alturas de Macchu Picchu," Neruda uses an extensive earth metaphor, to demonstrate how he longs to penetrate purity:

beneath all those leaves the color of hoarse sulfur:

and deeper still, into geologic gold

like a sword sheathed in meteors,

I plunged my turbulent and tender hand

into the most genital of earthly places.

Neruda combines nature with human passion throughout the poem and conveys a feeling of desperate separation from the earth. Neruda seeks connection with nature so intensely that every phrase of this stanza contains a powerful, almost violent, sensuality.

Neruda wants to become a part of the beautiful deep interior of the earth, of “the most genital.” Neruda’s ardent effort to connect fails; he concludes the poem with the line “the exhausted springtime of humanity.” The “human spring,” like the Garden of Eden, has wasted away. Neruda presents sensual earth metaphors, but concludes that human life cannot fuse with the earth. Neruda cannot penetrate the life-giving earth—except, perhaps, through death.

Air Imagery in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Like earth, air has an expansive nature that can convey wholeness, but remains impenetrable. Neruda’s "Alturas de Macchu Picchu" begins with the line “Del aire al aire;” he drags this phrase along, the same way the narrator meanders through the air in search of meaning. Air has an emptiness that speaks like the silent openness of Neruda’s solitude; the all-encompassing meaninglessness of the air pervades the poem.

As Neruda’s poem "Barcarola" progresses, wind shows how his sense of despondency increases: “soplaras en mi corazón de miedo frio” (blow into my heart of cold fear) Neruda’s cold heart craves the touch of soft wind; the wind, perhaps, of a woman. Neruda writes that with touch his heart “llamaría como un tubo lleno de viento o llanto” (would call like a pipe full of wind or crying). The wind carries the pure force of passion and pain. Towards the end he repeats his desperate hope: “alguien vendria, sopla con furia” (someone might come, and blow with fury). Neruda longs for “someone” to blow forcefully into his solitude—but he continues to use the conditional “vendria” and his loneliness remains impermeable in the still air.

Water Imagery in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Water has the same dual emotional significance as air: it has an all-encompassing potential to create connection, but it can (and ultimately does) represent an impossible emptiness. The symbol of water, like earth and air, has no fixed meaning, but is fluid and carries emotional weight. In "Barcarola," Neruda places the imagined possibility of connection “cerca del mar” (around the sea) and references the “aguas vacilantes” (empty waters) of the sea. The ocean represents a beautiful and powerful spirit, like the woman Neruda calls to.

The violent side of water begins to swell towards the end of the poem, when Neruda refers to “aguas rojas” (red waters) and “la espuma y la sangre” (the foam and the blood). His feelings are as violent as red water, floating amid the surf and blood. Water is a symbolic life force that moves through the poem from hope to pain. He is unable to connect with his lover or nature – his longing is both physical and spiritual. Neruda ends on the image of the “océano solo” (lone ocean) The water is like the solitude of the lonely man—and Neruda reflects onto it, unable to connect.

Fire Imagery in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Neruda uses fire symbols to convey the burning force of loneliness and the strength of passion. In "Barcarola," “un ruido de llamas húmedas quemando el cielo” (a noise of humid flames burns the sky). The moist flames are powerful and passionate, but also noisy and fleeting. Flame burns truth, however painful, into the poetry.

The Four Elements in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

By using the four elements as metaphors, Neruda intensifies the sadness of separation from nature, yet also moves closer to the so-called primordial essence of being—through words. Neruda recognizes the intrinsic value of nature and strives sensually towards wholeness through poetry. Earth, air, fire and water are the basis of our sensual existence—they are passionate and powerful, yet these sames strengths are the source of suffering because humanity is divided from them.

Neruda translates the elements of the earth into ironic words of wholeness and loneliness, of passion and pain, hope and despondency. His poetic language conveys a perception of life based on primitive images and sensations—our melancholy separation from nature stimulates creative thought.
Copyright Clarissa Caldwell. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.