Portfolio Section: Reading

Ode to Common Things by Pablo Neruda

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“Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park” by Diego Rivera Pre-Reading: Analyze the image above and take notes. Answer the guiding questions with as much detail as possible. • What do you see? I observed _______________________________________________________________________________

• Why do you think this image is about? I believe that the image of Dream of a Sunday Afternoon by Rivera means _________________

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• Explain what the title of the painting means.

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• What common things do you see in the painting that can be considered common and beautiful?

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Web Quest: Go online and search the answers to the following questions. You may work with your partner or team.

1. What is Pablo Neruda’s birth name?

2. Where was he born?

3. When was he born and when did he die?

4. What did Neruda do that would attract controversy?

5. What award did he receive in 1971?

Background Information: Read the following information and highlight the main points. Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Pablo Neruda’s Odes When Pablo Neruda published his first of three collections of odes—the Odas elementales (Elementary Odes)—in 1954, he was probably unaware that his Russian hero, Pushkin, had written 130 years earlier that odes were the lowest form of poem because they lacked a “plan” and because mere “rapture” excluded the kind of “tranquility” which, Pushkin said, was “an indispensable condition” of the highest beauty.” Fortunately, Neruda does achieve rapture, tranquility, and immense beauty in many of the Odes. Nevertheless, his aim was to speak to the ordinary people in the street about ordinary things using the language of the street. He praises simple objects like onions and tomatoes. Neruda’s odes are neither didactic nor artificial. Many seem genuinely full of his awe at the beauty around him. His enthusiasm is irresistible. We enjoy the world anew through his eyes: yes, a simple artichoke can be seen as a soldier, wrapped in armor and ready for battle; an onion is “more beautiful than a bird / with blinding feathers.” Other odes are overtly political, condemning North American military aggression in Korea or US appropriation of much of the Chilean copper industry.

Making Connections: Answer the discussion question. At one point, odes were considered the “lowest form of poetry” because they lacked a plan and they lacked beauty. However, Neruda wrote odes to speak about ordinary things to the people using a language they understood. What form of creative expression and entertainment is considered low and not beautiful by critics but loved the people? Also, explain why it is important to appreciate expression and entertainment for the people. __________________________________________________________________________________________

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Ode to the Artichoke

The tender-hearted upright artichoke girded itself as a warrior, constructed a small dome, to keep itself waterproof within its scales. At its side crazy vegetables ruffled up in cat-tails and tendrils, bulbs on the march; underground slept the red-whiskered carrot, the vineyard withered the shoots wine once rose through, the cabbage devoted itself to trying on skirts, oregano scented the world,

and right there in the garden the meek artichoke, girded for battle, burnished as a grenade, haughty, and then one day it was into the grand willow basket with the others and off to the market it marched to fulfill its dream: the militia!

STOP. Let’s analyze! ☺ Highlight if necessary. Define words you don’t understand. What’s the setting? Where is the action occurring? Describe the interesting characters in the ode. Who are they and what do they do?

STOP. Let’s analyze! ☺ Highlight if necessary. Define words you don’t understand. What is the artichoke being compared to? Give evidence. What is the artichoke’s dream? Where is it going?

In columns never more martial than at the fair, men in their white shirts among the vegetables became field marshals of the artichokes, the closed ranks, the voices of command, and the sudden detonation of ... a fumbled cashbox, but then comes Maria with her basket, who fearlessly picks out an artichoke, looking at it, examining it against the light as if it were an egg, she buys it drops it into her basket with a pair of shoes, a white cabbage and a bottle of vinegar as well then entering the kitchen plunges it into the pot.

And so it ends, in peace, the career of the armored vegetable called "artichoke," and presently scale by scale we undress this delight we munch the peaceful paste of its green heart.

Discussion Questions: A traditional ode is a complex poem that develops a serious, dignified theme and often celebrates an element of nature. 1. How is “Ode to an Artichoke” like a traditional ode? How is it different?

2. What do you think the poet’s intent was in writing an ode to a vegetable garden?

STOP. Let’s analyze! ☺ Highlight if necessary. Define words you don’t understand. Who do you think are the men in white shirts? Describe what the ambience is like at the fair. How does Maria treat the artichoke? Why is her treatment of the artichoke considered ironic?

STOP. Let’s analyze! ☺ Highlight if necessary. Define words you don’t understand. How does the career of the brave soldier, the artichoke, end? Is it comedic or tragic? Explain. Notice in the end, the poetic voice changes. Can you pinpoint where it changes? Why do you suppose that change occurs?