Poem analysis of 'A song of the republic' by Henry Lawson and 'If You Forget Me' by Pablo Neruda

Essay by rollingcastleJunior High, 9th gradeA, October 2008

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I have chosen two poems, A Song of The Republic, by Henry Lawson (1867-1922), and 'If You Forget Me' by Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). Both of these poems use many different techniques to reflect the context of their time and their values and beliefs.

Pablo Neruda was a Nobel prize winning Chilean poet who lived during the times of World War 1 and 2 as well as the Spanish civil war. Due to his first hand experiences, his poems changed overtime from love poems to political poems. Neruda firmly believed in the power of poetry, and wrote according to his beliefs. 'If You Forget Me' is one of Pablo's earlier poems as it is a love poem.

The poem 'If You Forget Me' can be interpreted in many ways and is like many other modern poems, it has no set rhyme or rhythm. The poem has 48 lines and is made up of 3 stanzas.

These stanzas have a huge variety in their sizes with the smallest stanza consisting of 2 lines whereas the largest stanza consists of 14 lines.

'If You Forget Me' is mainly about Neruda's belief of how love and relationships should work and that there is a thin line between love and hate and once this line is crossed, it cannot be reconciliated. This is shown in the poem where Neruda writes "If suddenlyyou forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you". Pablo also shows how little acts can build up and break a marriage. This is shown where Pablo writes "Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little".

In the poem 'If You Forget Me', Neruda uses many techniques effectively to convey his message to the reader. One of these...