Ode to My Socks Pablo Neruda Analysis

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“Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda Walking to school is an already tedious task that is placed upon some, before even thinking of the intense cold that winter brings. Trudging down the unplowed sidewalks, through the freshly fallen snow, thinking not of the long day ahead, but only thinking of how desperately needed some warm woolen socks are. “Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda is so simple and direct that it is hardly possible for a reader, even one not normally familiar with poetry, to not understand it from beginning to end. There are no subtle allusions, no poetic tricks, no metaphors that need unraveling. The poet sings praise to a pair of woolen socks that he receives as a gift. The socks are “heavenly” (line 32), “handsome” (35), “magnificent” (74), and the poet is hesitant to wear them because he feels he is not worthy of their grandeur. He resists the temptation to hoard them, and he puts them on his “unacceptable” (38), and “decrepit” (39) feet. Ending with “the moral of [his] ode” (77-78) that “what is good is doubly good when is it a matter of two socks made of wool in the winter” (82-86). Although this poem is simple, it presents the idea that simple things that are made with love are the things that should be cherished the most. The speaker uses many similes and metaphors to emphasize the intense gratitude that he has toward Maru Mori, the maker of the socks. He uses the contrast of “her sheepherder’s hands” (5) and the “two socks as soft as rabbits” (6-8) to display the work that she must have put into them just to make his life better. He goes farther to say that they are “knitted with threads of twilight” (14-16) and “[his] feet were honored in this way by these heavenly socks” (28-34). His gratitude toward the woman was large enough for him to consider never even putting them on. “Nevertheless [he] resisted the temptation to save them somewhere as
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