Quotes

These 7 Best Pablo Neruda Love Poems Will Make Your Heart Pound

By far one of the most talented voices in South American literature, the best Pablo Neruda love poems make for a lasting legacy that keeps him at the forefront of modern poetry to this day.

The best Pablo Neruda love poems are romantic, erotic, thrilling and breathtaking — and works that anyone who has experienced love should know.

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He wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems and political manifestos, but his love poems — which he started writing at merely 10 years old — have sold millions copies and been translated into many different languages.

He often wrote in green ink, which was his personal symbol for desire and hope.

Neruda's love poems were often dedicated to his wife, but anyone can read them to their sweetie.

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Read these love quote excerpts and dedicate them to your special someone.

1. If You Forget Me

"But if each day, each hour you feel
that you are destined for me 
with implacable sweetness
if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me 
ah my love, ah my own
in me all that fire is repeated 
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten
my love feeds on your love, beloved and as long as you live
it will be in your arms
without leaving mine."

2. XVII: I Do Not Love You

"I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved
in secret, between the shadow and the soul."

3. And Because Love Battles

"Tomorrow we will only give them
a leaf of the tree of our love, a leaf
which will fall on the earth
like if it had been made by our lips
like a kiss which falls
from our invincible heights
to show the fire and the tenderness
of a true love."

4. Don't Go Far Off

"Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart."

5. Love Sonnet XI

"I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps."

6. Every Day You Play

"My words rained over you, stroking you
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of you body
Until I even believe that you own the universe
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains,
bluebells, dark 
hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses
I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."

7. XXXIV

"And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms
that push back the shadows so that you can rest
vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams."

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Kristen Droesch is a writer, editor, and librarian who loves poetry and romance.