El primer texto de Neftalí Reyes y el último poema de Pablo Neruda

Abstract

One of the least studied aspects of the Nerudian canon is the earliest production of the young poet then named Neftalí Reyes. The early writing of the poet is decisive for the formation of the idea of the American self and for the constitution of a system of mythical references as well as for the process of the nomination of the stepmother as the mother and the self as poetic subjects.

In the course of his life, Neruda published more than six thousand pages of prose and verse. The earliest known text by the young Neftalí Reyes is in marked contrast to the poet's last poem, written with certainty after Sept. 11.1973, "Hastaciel" is a unique poem, for the complexity of its imagecy, its hermetic language, and its dark vision. It is well acknowledged that the poet's last work has not been given much study. In this case, rather than making a comparative analysis of both texts, it would be of greater interest to examine the beginning and the end of a writing style, that is, the opening and the closure of the poetic word, without ignoring the immense lyrical output accumulated between both extremes.