Ode to the Lemon
Jalen Goins
Pablo Neruda
Facts On Pablo
- Born on July 2nd 1904 – September 23rd 1973
-Chilean poet
- His poems on romantic love were most popular.
-In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
- Died of cancer shortly after resigning as an ambassador in France
Poem: Ode to the 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
VOCABULARY
Congealed- become or make liquid thick, make firm
Diminutive- small little or tiny
Literary Devices
Imagery- The poem has lots of imagery but in my opinion the line that gives a unique picture in my head is “A universe of gold”
Assonance- The 5th line down “Odor of a Love” all have the long O sound. Also on lines 34 and 35 “A small, Cathedral” all have the long A sound.
Metaphor- In the poem Pablo is saying that the Lemon is the earth when he calls it the nipple.