If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda Poem Analysis

Pablo Neruda, a well-known poet and one of the best, wrote an iconic poem called "If You Forget Me." He reveals several sorts of elements that are featured in a poem throughout the poem. We can notice the poem's genre, which has elements of lyric and dramatic poetry, throughout the poem. Many could argue that it isn't dramatic poetry, yet Neruda's delivery can be seen. "I shall lift my arms, and my roots will seek another place"; the dramatic presentation of part of the phrases communicates the message to the audience and the person who will receive it. The poem does not have a stanza form, but it does consist of six stanzas that vary in length and have no predetermined rhyme scheme, making it a free verse poem.

For the introductory stanza it starts of as a couplet and throughout we can see other stanza structures such as in the third stanza which consists of a tercet and the fourth stanza which is a quatrain and in the second stanza the poem consists of a 14-line stanza. As he delivers the message, he uses the speaker or persona to warn his leman the consequences if she is to forget him, which seemingly corresponds to the time that Pablo was being exiled from Chile, his home country, during the revolution and when he was getting a divorce from his wife. 

In stanza 5 line 3 and stanza 6 line 2 indicating the threat and how they will reply, a message is given from the first point of view to a second point of view as a message to someone so that they do not forget and cease loving; seeing that the words “I” and “You” common throughout the poem point to the first and second point of view. The imagery is visual because we can imagine and see how the speaker would forget the person, and he uses nature to express how they all lead back to the person he is attempting to forget in the second paragraph by using autumn, fire and how little boats sail towards the person. Because of how he loves her and yet she is attempting to forget him. The theme appears to be about love disappointment and yearning.  

Granted, the tone is rather depressing, with elements of closeness, optimism, sincerity, and hope. The tone may appear manipulative at first since Neruda says that if they forget him, he will forget his leman as well, but as you read it again, you will notice different tones and how they are delivered. "But if each day, each hour you feel you are destined for me," he writes in stanza six, and "Nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds to your love, beloved." This only serves to demonstrate his optimism that he and his partner will be reunited and continue to adore each other. Metaphors are visible. "Autumn at my Window" is a phrase used to describe the transition from summer to autumn. "Wrinkled log body," as a personification. "Everything pulls me to you," is a form of hyperbole. 

There are no references at all; this simply a tiny boy's expression of the intensity of his inner love. At the start of the poem, he declares that everything he achieves in life leads him closer to his girl.