From the daily archives: Saturday, July 9, 2005

The uses of poetry: Rebellion and the Praise of Murderers

By Rufus Pollock On July 9, 2005 · Leave a Comment

I was struck by this comment of Charles Simic in a review of Pablo Neruda’s poems [NYR Sept 25 2003 p.43]: Rebellion may be one of poetry’s traditions, but so is eulogizing the goodwill and godlike wisdom of some murderer.

The context for this comment was Simic’s discussion of Neruda’s devout Communism [...]

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