I Do not Love you Except Because I love you
The agony is endless, there's a glass wall between love and hate. It is often said that there is a thin line between love and hate. I think this poem also covers that idea. The ones we love may also be the ones who have the capacity to hurt us, yet we still find more reasons to love them at the end of the day. Love is the most ironic and confusing of all emotions. It requires us to be weak and strong at the same time, to give up and have more, to love because of and in spite of.
Pablo Neruda is trying to convey is the feeling of frustration of loving someone who does not love you in return is not about falling in love with someone in particular. It expresses what each and every one of us experience or at least would like to experience that is the state of mind and spirit that makes one depend entirely on the loved person's love.
We all need to love and be loved in return and most of us, I think, will live their life and try making it better for the love. It's quite unnatural what love does to a human being and to its senses and this poem has just the best words to describe this state and also the natural fear of losing the purpose of life.
This poem does not have any simile, but it has some metaphors. In the first stanza, the fourth verse it says “My heart moves from cold to fire” is a metaphor. It refers to the transitions of his feelings that goes from not feeling anything to a development of a passion. In the third stanza it says: “Maybe in January light will consume” it maybe means that both lovers will be together in time and the distance will no longer be a problem. Finally the last verse of the poem ends with a metaphor that says “Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood”. The author now referring directly to the other person, is expressing an unconditional love, sharing a passion that not only hurts the mental but also the physical by saying in fire and blood.




