I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.
I love you only because it’s you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.
Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.
In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.
I really liked this poem. I love this poet and I find he is so passionate in his love poems. I think this poem is relatable for people who have loved and lost. Also for the one’s stuck in the middle waiting to figure out where they stand in the relationship.
In this particular poem, the poet is confused on how he feels. The poet describes “My heart moves from cold to fire.” I think this language is great and I like how instead of using the word warm or burns he uses “fire.” He also wants to love yet he wants to let go “I go from loving to not loving you, From waiting to not waiting for you.” I think people can relate to this part of the poem.
My favorite lines in the poem are “In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you, Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.” I think it is so Pablo Neruda to end a poem like this. He ends it with passion and really leaves an emotion in your heart when you are done reading it. I think here is where the speaker, or poet himself, comes to realization that he really does love this person and feels like he will die from the pain that love can bring.
skyvander7 Said:
on November 3, 2008 at 5:30 am
I liked this poem, and the which Neruda made it sound very strong an bold, almost demanding the atention of the reader. I also agree the the use of the words “hot” and “cold” gave the poem an even stronger tone.
incognitos16 Said:
on November 9, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I am wondering if Neruda has any poetry that isn’t a love poem? But this one is really good, it reminded me of when my first relationship was on its way out. Actually being with her was awesome, but then not being with her is when I started thinking how bad the relationship really was. It would probably really suck to be Neruda going through this stuff all the time with such emotion attached to it.
worldofwords18 Said:
on November 10, 2008 at 6:52 am
I love Pablo Neruda and fully agree in that he is so passionate in his poems. Love is so easy to feel and loss is even easier, but to write about them in a way that most everyone that reads it can relate and feel again, is amazing. I think this poem is great in the way that it starts by saying “I do not love you except because I love you..” It is such a strong opening line and it is what love should be all about- just pure love. Loving without reason other than the love for that person itself. If all I read was the first line, I would never think that he goes on to talk about how he hates her sometimes or how he seems so confused and stuck in a sort of limbo between knowing and feeling the love and then wondering if the love is still there. Neruda is a great writer. Great choice of poem, it’s so easy to read and I can really relate to it.
farfromfalling Said:
on November 11, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I am a huge Pablo Neruda fan as you can see in most of my posts. He has such a good understanding of love even though it doesnt seem to work out all the time in his poetry. Going back and forth between loving someone and not loving someone very frustrating but thats life. Great post I agree with you this poem is about love and loss.
carvingoswego Said:
on November 12, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I think Neruda’s passion is really admirable. He uses it well, and it’s certainly relatable in almost every poem. I just can’t tell if we like him because of his writing or because we’re all at an age where we may be in situations that are similar to the things he writes about. Is it his content or his skill that really draws us all in? Looking at this poem, it just reminds me of all the other Neruda poems I’ve read, which has been making me a little disheartened.
Now that I got that out of the way… I do like the message the poem gives in the beginning. It really conveys that good and bad of a relationship well. There is always contrasting feelings and desires in relationships that causes varied tensions. It’s very easy to relate to right now, as Neruda always seems to be.
writinggb Said:
on December 21, 2008 at 4:47 pm
graded now