Classics in Context:
Pablo Neruda,
The Captains’ Verse:
Love Poems
Chicago Humanities Festival
Education Programs | 2009 Curriculum Collection
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Chicago Humanities Festival
Classics in Context: Pablo Neruda, The Captains’ Verse: Love Poems
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About the Chicago Humanities Festival
The Chicago Humanities Festival (chf) creates year-round opportunities for people of all
ages, backgrounds, and economic circumstances to explore, enjoy, and support the arts and
humanities. We accomplish this by presenting programs throughout the year, culminating
in two annual Festivals of the Humanities, one in the spring specifically for children and families and one in the fall for the general public. The chf’s mission of providing broad access
to the humanitiesat a low ticket pricedepends in part on the generosity of its most committed
and enthusiastic supporters.
www.chicagohumanities.org
Classics in Context
Sometimes all it takes to change your mind is to consider a new perspective. Classics in Context is
a seminar sequence for teachers led by renowned humanities scholars. The series takes a fresh
look at universally established and contemporary literary classics. Giving teachers a chance
to renew professionally and personally, the Chicago Humanities Festival supports teachers in
their pursuit to revive seasoned and the contemporary classic books through study and
conversation, alongside their colleagues.
The following lesson plans were created by chf’s Curriculum Developer Kerry Catlin in
response to a lecture by Professor Kelly Austin at the April 2009 Classics in Context session
on The Captain’s Verses: Love Poems by Pablo Neruda. The program was presented in partnership with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago.
Kerry Catlin has been developing curriculum for the chf since September of 2006.
In the fall of 2007, she joined the English Department of Walter Payton College Prep
High School after having been the Master Teacher and Curriculum Coordinator at the
Lookingglass Theater Company. She received her Masters in Education from DePaul
University and her Bachelors in Speech from Northwestern University.
Kelly Austin, assistant professor in the Division of Humanities, studies Literature
of the Americas and Translation Studies, focusing on modern and contemporary
poetry. Her current research centers on Pablo Neruda and the material evidence of
literary cross currents in the Americas, translations, collections and correspondence.
Most recent and forthcoming publications include essays on José Donoso’s Casa
de campo, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Viajes por Europa, África, y América
1845 – 1847, Mario Vargas Llosa’s El pez en el agua and Pablo Neruda’s collections. She is also a translator of Spanish American literature.
Chicago Humanities Festival
Classics in Context: Pablo Neruda, The Captains’ Verse: Love Poems
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About Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name
of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his
pen name as a teenager. Neruda’s pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan
Neruda; Pablo is thought to be from Paul Verlaine. With his works translated into many
languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of
the 20th century. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Captains’ Verses”
Love Poems.
From Wikipeida
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pablo_Neruda&oldid=305121764
About The Captain’s Verses
Pablo Neruda finished writing The Captain’s Verses in 1952 while in exile on the island of Capri
– the paradisal setting for the blockbuster film Il Postino (The Postman). Surrounded by sea,
sun, and Capri’s natural splendors, Neruda addressed these poems to his lover Matilde
Urrutia before they were married, but didn’t publish them publicly until 1963. This complete,
bilingual collection has become a classic for love-struck readers around the world – passion­
ately sensuous, and exploding with all the erotic energy of a new love.
From Amazon.Com
Chicago Humanities Festival
Classics in Context: Pablo Neruda, The Captains’ Verse: Love Poems
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1 Book of Poems
After students have read The Captain’s Verses and discussed Neruda’s poetry, ask them to
consider the collection of love poems as a narrative. What are the elements of a narrative? How
does this collection of poems tell one story? What is the story? Consider the organization of
the Table of Contents – Love, Desire, The Furies, Lives. Ask students to fill in a plot diagram for
this book. For example …
1. Ask students to write five poems that follow a narrative arc or, tell a story.
2. Pre-write suggestions:
›› who is this speaker / poet?
›› What world is he or she living in? What is the political, cultural,
spiritual climate?
›› What is the conflict?
›› Why does this story need to be told?
3. You may also consider inventing characters and situations. Students are assigned
or randomly select their speakers and situations.
4. You may consider making books of students’ poetry.
Students should:
›› illustrate each poem (drawings, photos, collages, paintings, etc)
›› create a title for the book
›› a dedication page
›› an author’s note explaining the speaker, story, and motivation for
the poetry.
5. Books can be bound at school or at Kinko’s
Chicago Humanities Festival
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2 Word. Sound. Image
After reading The Captain’s Verses and discussing, ask students to select three poems
(or you can assign three to each student).
1. Ask students to create a visual representation of each poem
(photographs, video, slides, painting, film, drawings, etc.)
2. Ask students to create a soundtrack for each poem
(recorded music, live music, sound effects, etc.)
3. Present. Student will recite poem while playing soundtrack and displaying images.
Students may record their voice or recite live.
Here are some possible poem combinations:
The Son (p 39) / The Waster (p 65) / Lives (p 97)
Love (p 3) / If You Forget Me (p 77) / You Would Come (p89)
Chicago Humanities Festival
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3 Ode to Common Things
Pablo Neruda’s Ode to Common Things celebrates and elevates everyday objects.
›› Read, look at, react to some of Neruda’s odes. For example,
Ode to a pair of socks
Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
that she knit with her
shepherd’s hands.
Two socks as soft
as rabbit fur.
I thrust my feet
inside them
as if they were
two
little boxes
knit
from threads
of sunset
and sheepskin.
those
heavenly
socks.
My feet were
two woolen
fish
in those outrageous socks,
two gangly,
navy-blue sharks
impaled
on a golden thread,
two giant blackbirds,
two cannons:
thus
were my feet
honored
by
Nevertheless
I fought
the sharp temptation
to put them away
the way schoolboys
put
fireflies in a bottle,
the way scholars
hoard
holy writ.
I fought
the mad urge
to lock them
in a golden
They were
so beautiful
I found my feet
unlovable
for the very first time,
like two crusty old
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that embroidered
fire,
those incandescent
socks.
Neruda, Pablo. Odes to Common Things. Bulfinch, May 1, 1994.
cage
and feed them birdseed
and morsels of pink melon
every day.
Like jungle
explorers
who deliver a young deer
of the rarest species
to the roasting spit
then wolf it down
in shame,
I stretched
my feet forward
and pulled on
those
gorgeous
socks,
and over them
my shoes.
So this is
the moral of my ode:
beauty is beauty
twice over
and good things are doubly
good
when you’re talking about a
pair of wool
socks
in the dead of winter.
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›› Discuss how the odes look and sound.
What is an ode?
›› Discover how Neruda “odes” an object.
How does he convey a love of the object?
›› Brainstorm a list of possible things to ode.
What things are dear to you?
What things are common but may hold a greater significance?
›› Discuss metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, and assonance.
›› Choose one object to ode.
›› Draft an ode copying Neruda’s physical structure and use of figurative and concrete
language.
›› Team up with a Spanish class, a Spanish speaker, or an art class.
Exhibit with Spanish odes from Spanish-speaking students. Exhibit with art created by
students to match odes.