Aesthetic Analysis of the Relationship between the Beloved and Nature in the Poetry Collection “One Hundred Love Sonnets” by Pablo Neruda

Utilizing natural elements in poetry is one of the literary techniques that poets and writers around the world have benefitted from and sought after in various forms and structures by means of literary devices such as simile, metaphor, metonymy, and symbolism. This study analyzes the way in which the renowned Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, has utilized these natural elements in his collection of poems One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959). Due to his profound outlook, deep understanding of the surrounding world and existing natural elements, and the reflection of these elements in his poetry, Neruda enjoyed special fame in the world. This article highlights the literary and aesthetic values of his love sonnets in manifesting the beloved and her similarity with the femininity existing in natural elements. Natural elements in his poetry symbolically and metaphorically delineate diverse connotations of the beloved’s outward and inward beauties. Elements such as soil, which is the symbol of fertility and growth, and water and rain, as symbols of life, beauty, passion, and hope appear in this collection. What is evident is that the high frequency of natural elements in describing the beloved in Neruda’s collection is the result of the special experience he had had in his childhood and years of growth and development in the virgin jungles of South America.