A Dog Has Died

1. As a prominent Chilean diplomat, Neruda witnessed the Spanish Civil War and knew many heroic individuals—many of whom were killed by violent execution during the rule of the corrupt Chilean government. One of his closest friends and a fellow poet, Federico García Lorca, was among those killed. However, instead of writing an elegy for a prominent figure such as Lorca, Neruda chose to write an elegy for his dog. Having witnessed so much death and suffering, why do you think Neruda chose to honor and commemorate his pet rather than a human being? How does writing an elegy to a dog allow Neruda to explore philosophical questions about life that an elegy to a man or woman might not?

2. Neruda consciously chose to use parallelism and repetition throughout his poem, repeating words, phrases, and parts of entire sentences. Examples of this are “I buried him” (Line 2 and Line 52), “I believe in a heaven I'll never enter. / Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom” (Lines 10-11), and “No, my dog used to gaze at me, / paying me the attention I need, / the attention required” (Lines 26-28), among others. Why do you think Neruda chose to repeat these words and phrases? What type of tone does this establish in the poem? How does repetition serve the literary form of an elegy?

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