Pablo Neruda's Ode to Sadness

            I thought ode to sadness would be interesting to read because all of us have faced sadness some time in our life. I thought the poem was semi clear, meaning that it was hardly ambiguous. When he says “scarab with seven crippled feet, spiderweb egg, scramble-brained rat, bitch's skeleton,” I think he is trying to describe what sadness is, and at the same time create an image of how horrendous sadness is to him. Which I would consider to be a hyperbole, an exaggeration of what sadness really is or could be. Neruda also uses emphasis when he tells sadness more than three times to go away. He uses words to convey an image that he does not want sadness to enter his thoughts. Some of the words portray a grotesque image (i.e. “bitch’s skeleton”, “I will wring your neck,” “I will stitch your eyelids shut”) So we clearly get an image of this person who does not want sadness to enter his/her thoughts, and he/she will do anything to keep it away his/her thoughts.