Review
"[Neruda's] artistic work stands as a monument to a soul in perpetual motion." --Galo Rene Perez
"Not since Whitman has a poet of genius embraced a whole continent, as Neruda has, or spoken so directly to non-poets among his readers." --Selden Rodman
"Not since Whitman has a poet of genius embraced a whole continent, as Neruda has, or spoken so directly to non-poets among his readers." --Selden Rodman
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Poem by Pablo Neruda, published in 1947 as "Alturas de Macchu Picchu" and later included as part of his epic CANTO GENERAL. It is considered one of Neruda's greatest poetic works. The 12 sections of The Heights of Macchu Picchu represent separate phases of a journey, literally and figuratively. The poet begins by recounting his failure to find the fulfillment in love that he has spent much of his life seeking. After traveling around the country he has returned home, and, seeking creativity in the midst of meaningless death and his own loneliness, he climbs to and views the lost Inca city of Macchu Picchu. He contemplates the ancients who built the city and concludes that their lives were as meaningless and also as noble as those of his contemporaries.
