19 pages • 38 minutes read
If You Forget Me
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
“If You Forget Me” (Si tu me olvidas) by Pablo Neruda was published in the 1952 collection The Captain’s Verses (Los versos del Capitan). It was originally published anonymously, but Neruda put his name on the collection in 1963. This book comes a couple decades into Neruda’s canon. He began publishing books, in Spanish, in 1923 and continued to do so until his death in 1973. English translations of The Captain’s Verses began to be published in 1972.
“If You Forget Me” is a free verse poem that uses many symbols from the tradition of love poetry, such as the moon and fire. Neruda explores the themes of Love Is Reciprocity (Mutual Exchange), the Temporal (Time-Related) Nature of Love, and The Heart’s Home.
Poet Biography
Pablo Neruda, a pseudonym for Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, was born in 1904 in Parral, Chile. He grew up in Temuco and moved to Santiago in 1921. There, he attended the University of Chile, studying pedagogy and French. Neruda traveled to various places—such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Buenos Aires, and Madrid—through governmental honorary consulships, from 1927 to 1935.
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By Pablo Neruda
