It only took me seven years to finish this thing. I took a long break in the middle because I was having a hard time getting through some of his poetry. I adore Neruda’s love sonnets, some of them are my favorite poems ever. I used a quote from him in my wedding vows and several in the guest book I made for people to sign. The language he uses in his poetry about nature is beautiful. I am not, however, a fan of his political poetry. It was so hard for me to get through. Although I did find the vendetta he had against Nixon entertaining….(seriously it was the subject matter of several poems and was mentioned in many others)

Overall I think I would have enjoyed rereading his love sonnets much more than I enjoyed reading this monstrosity.

I swooned. I cried. I sighed.
[reading the Captain’s verses]

I need to look for an actual copy of this massive book, a kindle won't do justice.

An absolute must have for any Neruda fan. Or fans of poetry. Or fans of words. Or fans of life, and love, and nature, and existing on this beautiful planet where a poet can seemingly effortlessly string together words with great mastery of prose and verse and with a result of absolute loveliness...