The White Mans Burden Poem by Pablo Neruda

The White Mans Burden

Rating: 2.7


Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Edward Kofi Louis 06 October 2016

The roots i had left behind. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

2 0 Reply
Rose Marie Juan-austin 05 July 2023

So deeply touching and poignant. Every fiber of this poem touches the heart because of its powerful images and poetic expressions.

0 0 Reply
MAHTAB BANGALEE 05 July 2023

I lost the path of childhood and still wandering to find out this but never it comes as before; Oh that's life the past never comes back!

0 0 Reply
Tom Billsborough 06 October 2016

A whole past lost to the Conquistadors, so tragically expressed by a truly great poet

1 0 Reply
Seamus O Brian 06 October 2016

A twig, a small remnant of a much greater thing. A remnant with its own stories, own burdens, own memories. What remnants do we leave in the trail of our living, and what will their story be to those who listen?

1 0 Reply
Barry Middleton 06 October 2016

I have felt that many times. An excellent work.

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