The Night in Isla Negra
The Night in Isla Negra - meaning Summary
Night, Sea, and Dawn
This short poem portrays a stormy night on the Chilean coast where sea, sky and shadow clash around the poet's house. The elements are described as a sustained, elemental struggle that yields a harsh, blood-tinged dawn. The language emphasizes physical force and transformation, suggesting the speaker's intimate, lived experience of the oceanic landscape associated with Neruda's residence in Isla Negra.
Read Complete AnalysesAncient night and the unruly salt beat at the walls of my house. The shadow is all one, the sky throbs now along with the ocean, and sky and shadow erupt in the crash of their vast conflict. All night long they struggle; nobody knows the name of the harsh light that keeps slowly opening like a languid fruit. So on the coast comes to light, out of seething shadow, the harsh dawn, gnawed at by the moving salt, swept clean by the mass of night, bloodstained in its sea-washed crater.
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