Canto I: A Lamp on Earth (pages 13-27)
“A Lamp on Earth,” the opening section, begins with “Amor America (1400).” This poem, as do most in this section, operates much in the manner of Neruda’s numerous odes. The book’s first poem conjures the beauty and relative peace of America prior to the arrival of the conquistadores. The succeeding poems of the opening section sing respectively to “Vegetation,” “Some Beasts,” “The Birds Arrive,” “The Rivers Come Forth,” “Minerals,” and, finally, “Man.”
“A Lamp on Earth” is something of a contemporary Popol Vuh, the sequence of ancient Mayan creation myths. Neruda’s work may be more accurately dubbed a re-creation myth. As in the Mayan vision, each separate element of the natural world is treated to its own individual tale of creation. The creation of the world is described as a series of smaller creations—landscape, vegetation, animals, minerals, people—all of which finally exist together as though by way of some godly experiment. The destruction of Mayan culture by the Spanish is detailed in the third section, which concentrates on a selection of names and places. Before moving into that cataclysmic period, however, Neruda inserts one of the most highly regarded works of his career, “The Heights of Macchu Picchu.”
Canto II: The Heights of Macchu Picchu Teaching Notes. (pages 29-42)
This series of 12 Cantos was inspired by Neruda’s 1943 visit to the ancient Inca city of Macchu Picchu in Peru, a citadel, fortification, and stronghold that was built in the mountains near Cuzco. These cantos vividly depict the history of Spanish America and are also a potent commemoration of pre-Columbian culture. In his Cantos, Neruda ascends the pyramids of this magnificent city and is both impressed by the sheer majesty of the spectacular pre-Columbian ruin and devastated by what the site brings. The 12 parts focus on the geography, architectural splendor, and natural flora and fauna of the Inca people. This series of stylistically elevated poems use metaphors, personification, and imagery to vividly describe the struggles of the people of South America against poverty and national and international oppression, to name a few global issues.
Canto III: The Conquistadors (pages 43-69)
In this section of Canto General, Neruda discusses major figures and events of the colonization: the rape, as he calls it, of Cuba; Cortez’s take over; the burning of native books; at that Atahualpa’s death...Neruda presents primarily the struggle of Araucanians, a native tribe who has never been subdued until now, While detailing their unity and surviving, he also dramatizes the Advent of Pedro Valdivia and his parceling out of the Chilean landscape. In these poems Neruda portrays the violent nature of the occupation of Chili: a country that is no longer unified, but cut up and parcelled out into territories. His beloved country becomes a stage for conquest, rage, and terror in the hands of the conquistadors.
