All the Odes

“How could you not love this book? Put it by the bedside. Or by the porcelain convenience. Anywhere you find yourself alone with a minute. Flip pages to a random ode, and have a ball . . . These are direct, open, rapid, often joyful poems addressed to things of this world--onion, building, butterfly, eye, horse, washerwoman, envy, old poet, typography (yes!), Paul Robeson . . . . It's a grateful, grief-stricken, revolving-in-wonder song of life on Earth, a reminder, in short, skinny bursts, of the thrill of what's in front of us . . . By far most of the odes strike me as still vigorous. And Stavans' notes explain much that has gone forgotten . . . If you read All the Odes, you will live more alive to the living world.” —John Timpane, Philly.com on Pablo Neruda

“There is no poetic work in the Spanish language as exuberant and multifarious as that of Neruda, a poetry that has touched so many different worlds and irrigated such diverse vocations and talents. The only comparable case I know in other languages is that of Victor Hugo . . . Undoubtedly, Neruda's work will endure and continue to bewitch future generations of readers the way it has bewitched ours.” —Mario Vargas Llosa on Pablo Neruda