Pablo Neruda

Introduction
Early life and love poetry
The experimental poet as diplomat
Communism and poetry
Later years
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Pablo Neruda wearing a coat, scarf, and hat, stands holding a suitcase and newspaper, looking slightly to the side, in a covered outdoor setting.

At a Glance

Pablo Neruda summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Agathon (centre) greeting guests in "Plato's Symposium" oil on canvas by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869; in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Philosophy 101

Page from the Mayan document Popol Vuh. The Newberry's manuscript of the Popol Vuh is one of the most widely known and possibly the earliest surviving copy. It was transcribed between 1700 and 1715 in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, by the Dominican...

Quick Quiz: Latin American Literature

Related Questions

At what age did Pablo Neruda begin writing poetry?
How did Federico García Lorca support Pablo Neruda’s poetry?
How did Modernismo influence Pablo Neruda’s early poetry?
How did Pablo Neruda help Spanish Republican refugees reach Chile?
How did Pablo Neruda’s poetry change after his return to Chile in 1952?
How did Salvador Allende’s death occur during the 1973 military coup?
How did the Spanish Civil War change Pablo Neruda’s writing and politics?
How do Pablo Neruda’s communist beliefs appear in Canto general?
How does the mood change in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair?
How is the style of Elemental Odes different from the style of Residence on Earth?
What are the four main directions of Pablo Neruda’s poetry?
What did Pablo Neruda study after moving to Santiago in 1921?
What happens in the final poem of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair?
What historical period does Canto general cover?
What illness did Pablo Neruda have when he received the Nobel Prize?
What is España en el corazón about?
What is the main view of Latin American history presented in Canto general?
What literary techniques did Pablo Neruda use in Residence on Earth?
What name did Pablo Neruda use before legally adopting his pen name?
What subjects are celebrated in Elemental Odes?
What was Pablo Neruda’s first published book of poetry?
When and where was Pablo Neruda born?
When did Pablo Neruda receive the Nobel Prize in Literature?
When was Pablo Neruda’s memoir Memoirs published?
When was Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair published?
Where did Pablo Neruda grow up after his family moved from Parral?
Which Soviet leader is praised in Canto general?
Which diplomatic post did Salvador Allende give Pablo Neruda?
Which everyday objects appear in Pablo Neruda’s Elemental Odes?
Which future Nobel Prize winner encouraged Pablo Neruda when he was a student in Temuco?
Which themes appear in Pablo Neruda’s Residence on Earth poems?
Who inspired the love poems in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair?
Whom did Pablo Neruda meet while serving as consul in Buenos Aires?
Why did Pablo Neruda become an honorary consul in Rangoon?
Why did Pablo Neruda begin publishing under a pseudonym?
Why did Pablo Neruda move closer to communism while living in Spain?
Why has the cause of Pablo Neruda’s death remained controversial?
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What is “Where the Mind Is Without Fear” by Rabindranath Tagore?
Did Rabindranath Tagore write the national anthem of India?
Why did Rabindranath Tagore refuse his knighthood?
What awards did Rabindranath Tagore win?
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Why did Anne Carson win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
What is Eros the Bittersweet about?
What is Autobiography of Red about?
What is If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho?

Politics, Law & Government World Leaders Senators

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External Websites

Poetry Foundation - Pablo Neruda
Library of Congress - Pablo Neruda
ABC listen - Radio National - The poetry of Pablo Neruda
The Nobel Prize - Biography of Pablo Neruda
Poets.org - Pablo Neruda
Poetry International - Pablo Neruda
Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research - Poems of Pablo Neruda: An Emblem of Love From Personal To Universal Echelon
BBC News - Unravelling the mystery of Pablo Neruda's death
University of Information Technology and Sciences - Pablo Neruda: Poetics and Politics (PDF)
Official Site of Pablo Neruda Foundation

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Pablo Neruda - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Pablo Neruda

Chilean poet

Also known as: Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto

Written by

Manuel E. Duran

Professor of Hispanic Literature, Yale University. Coauthor of Earth Tones: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda.

Manuel E. DuranAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 31, 2026 •History

Pablo Neruda (born July 12, 1904, Parral, Chile—died September 23, 1973, Santiago) was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He is perhaps the most important Latin American poet of the 20th century. Neruda was the son of José del Carmen Reyes, a railway worker, and Rosa Basoalto. His mother died within a month of his birth, and two years later the family moved to Temuco,...

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