In Pablo Neruda's poem "Walking Around," readers are given a description of a busy city. However, it is not a celebration of this city's booming activities. Neruda sets an bustling, gritty tone, so an insufferable image of city life emerges.
"Walking Around" describes the cramped style in which one has to walk in a city, as well as the grittiness the city has within it. Neruda uses words like "navigating," "pass," "cross," and "shoves" to describe the walk through the streets. Each one of these words has more of a bustling connotation (1424). This is not a pleasant, open-field walk but a tight, crowded one. As the speaker is attempting to walk through the crowded streets, readers are given a description of the surroundings. Every description of the city is horrendous. Neruda even describes drying laundry as "weep[ing] slow dirty tears" (1424). Even a description of drying laundry has a gritty, depressing tone. Instead of water dropping from the wet clothes, Neruda calls it tears. Words like "intestines" and "poisons" also contribute to unpleasant descriptions of the speaker's surroundings (1424).
Overall, Neruda is simply setting a depressing tone. He continuously repeats, "It happens that I am tired of being a man" (1423). This repeated line itself depicts the overwhelming sadness the speaker is feeling. Neruda writes of "cold, dying with pain" to add to this overall depressing tone (1424). There is even an evil undertone of agression- speaking of "knock[ing] a nun stone dead with one blow of an ear" (1423). Of all people to murder, a nun seems an odd selection. This is the only time Neruda writes of pleasantry. When he writes of murdering a nun or walking through the streets with a gun, he uses words like "delicious" and "beautiful," which adds to the very unsettling tone of the piece (1424).
Works Cited
"Walking Around" describes the cramped style in which one has to walk in a city, as well as the grittiness the city has within it. Neruda uses words like "navigating," "pass," "cross," and "shoves" to describe the walk through the streets. Each one of these words has more of a bustling connotation (1424). This is not a pleasant, open-field walk but a tight, crowded one. As the speaker is attempting to walk through the crowded streets, readers are given a description of the surroundings. Every description of the city is horrendous. Neruda even describes drying laundry as "weep[ing] slow dirty tears" (1424). Even a description of drying laundry has a gritty, depressing tone. Instead of water dropping from the wet clothes, Neruda calls it tears. Words like "intestines" and "poisons" also contribute to unpleasant descriptions of the speaker's surroundings (1424).
Overall, Neruda is simply setting a depressing tone. He continuously repeats, "It happens that I am tired of being a man" (1423). This repeated line itself depicts the overwhelming sadness the speaker is feeling. Neruda writes of "cold, dying with pain" to add to this overall depressing tone (1424). There is even an evil undertone of agression- speaking of "knock[ing] a nun stone dead with one blow of an ear" (1423). Of all people to murder, a nun seems an odd selection. This is the only time Neruda writes of pleasantry. When he writes of murdering a nun or walking through the streets with a gun, he uses words like "delicious" and "beautiful," which adds to the very unsettling tone of the piece (1424).
Works Cited
Neruda, Pablo. “Walking Around.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1423-1424. Print.
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