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Where to start reading poetry (again)

A bright, colourful image showing the Henry James quote, “Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

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The best literary quotes about summer

Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda

A dazzling collection of poetry by the greatest Latin-American Poet of our time

The poems today remain as urgently gorgeous as freshly picked flowers

His love poems have fuelled romances around the world

One of the greatest love poets of all time

Born Neftal-Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in southern Chile in 1904, Pablo Neruda led a life charged with poetic and political activity. His first book, Crepusculario ('Twilight') was published in 1923. The following year, he published Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada ('Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair'), which turned him into a celebrity. In 1927 he began his long career as a diplomat, serving as Chilean consul in numerous places including Burma, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mexico and France. He was elected to the Chilean Senate in 1943 but later expelled for being a Communist. In 1952 the government withdrew the order to arrest leftist writers and political figures, and Neruda returned to Chile. For the next twenty-one years, he continued a career that integrated private and public concerns and became known as the people's poet. During this time, Neruda received numerous prestigious awards, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He died of leukaemia in Santiago, Chile in 1973.

The perfect gift for Valentine’s Day 
 
Selected Poems contains Neruda's resonant, exploratory, intensely individualistic verse, rooted in the physical landscape and people of Chile. Here we find sensuous songs of love, tender odes to the sea, melancholy lyrics of heartache, fiery political statements and a frank celebration of sex. This is an enticing, distinctive and celebrated collection of poetry from the greatest twentieth century Latin American poet.

Pablo Neruda

W S Merwin

Leo Boix

This is one of the greatest collections of love poetry ever published. Inspired by Pablo Neruda's youthful relationships and injected with an expressive eroticism, these poems are as accomplished as they are evocative and sensual. First published in 1924 to international acclaim when Neruda was just nineteen, this book is still adored the world over for being one of the most memorable, intense and romantic works of poetry ever written. 
 
It is a work of poetry to be cherished by lovers old and new. The perfect Valentine's Day present. 
 
INTRODUCED BY LEO BOIX 
 
'The poems today remain as urgently gorgeous as freshly picked flowers' Carol Ann Duffy 
 
The Vintage Classics Love Poems series brings together some of the most sensual, heart-breaking and romantic poetry ever written. Working in collaboration with Vintage Creative Director Suzanne Dean this edition has been created by Spanish illustrator Jesús Cisneros.

Pablo Neruda

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

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