Introducing my new Blog Submissions category. If you want to submit entries, please use the form on my Contact page. My nephew Jorden submitted his comments on Pablo Neruda‘s poem The Word.
The poem goes through the years and layers of language. The first types of communication were the pulsing sounds of war drums. The violent hatred for something you didn’t know something that was different. As man grew and evolved, communication moved away from senseless hatred. Just as man was born into violence, language reverted to violence in times of need. Words they had created changed from peaceful requests into violent commands.
Time changed words as it changes all things. Communication started anew, the words were not those of peace or violence they were words of meaning. And with this mold, the language of man was set and changed little over the years. If you could not communicate you could not function. And–as words developed different words were made in different languages, but just as they were vastly different they were infinitely the same. Communication is more than just orders–it carries images. It carries life.
I enjoyed the following lines because it lends to the subtle beauty of language.
“A word or shining cup
In it I drink
The pure wine of language
Or inexhaustible water”
At first I did not like this poem because I looked at it too literally, but it goes deeper. It has a meaning unto its own and it communicates something that we do every moment of our life. So in that–it communicates life itself.
Jorden Dye
Gr. 10 English
Juno Beach Academy
