Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1957

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context: The Ode

While the ode has a long history stemming back to ancient Greece, Neruda’s poem exists more within the romantic tradition—particularly that of John Keats. Keats’s odes are similar in thematic movement to Neruda’s in that they focus on specific, seemingly mundane objects, and the focus on these objects leads the speaker to some sort of epiphany or revelation about love or life at large.

“Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and “To Autumn” are three of Keats’s most famous odes. “Nightingale” explores concepts of creativity, death, and nature through the image of a bird. “Grecian Urn” focuses on themes of beauty, art, and time through an exploration of an urn. Finally, “To Autumn” explores concepts of death and artistry through the use of the autumn season.

In each of these poems, Keats uses an extended metaphor—or allegory—to present the theme of the work. Keats’s odes contrast seemingly insignificant objects with deep philosophical themes, all while using the celebratory style of the ode.

Neruda was familiar with the work of the romantic poets, and though he does not follow Keats’s structured format, he does mimic Keats’s use of metaphor and subject. Additionally, Neruda’s focus on the image of death as he looks at the tuna mirrors Keats’s themes in many poems.

Historical Context

Art both reflects and is reflected by the time in which it is created. This poem is no exception. Neruda’s focus on the commodified tuna in the market speaks to the environment in which he lived and the aspects of society on which he focused. Neruda was a communist from a rural area of a country along the sea. The poem’s romantic view of nature and negative view of man’s interjection into nature reflect Neruda’s personal and political beliefs.

Additionally, Neruda’s experiments with poetic form come through in this poem. The ode is a classical form, but Neruda writes it in free verse with short lines and an irregular rhyme scheme. Writing in the mid-20th century, Neruda existed in a world where language and poetic form had gone through massive transformations in prior decades, so Neruda’s mixed form matches the historical moment in the world of poetry.

Additionally, the poem arrived at a time of great personal and political distress for Neruda. A few years earlier, the dictator Carlos Ibáñez del Campo defeated Neruda’s preferred presidential candidate, Salvador Allende, to become the Chilean president. Neruda’s marriage to Delia del Carril was falling apart. And there was unrest in the communist world as divisions about the legacy of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin publicly came to a head.

Neruda reflects the struggles during this part of his life in the melancholy reflection concluding the poem as the very earth upon which he walks swallows all life in waters of death.