I Do Not Love You Except I Love You Poem Response

This poem by Pablo Neruda illustrates clearly the pain and confusion of falling in love and being in a relationship. This poem shows us how hard it can be to love someone and how love can hurt and in turn shows us that it is possible to love and hate someone at the same time, it illustrates to us what a pressured relationship looks like and we can see this from a males point of view in the relationship and how he feels under pressure by this making it difficult for him to decide whether he stays or goes. He feels that this love will be the death of him ‘I will die of love because I love you’. This poem only illustrates to us one relationship but in two different ways. The poet speaks of his love for this women and he speaks of fiery love for her. In the first two verses this poem shows us contrasts between two different feelings for a person for example ‘my heart moves from cold to fire’ meaning he does not love her at all to he is very much in love with her; this shows us that the relationship must be under a bit of pressure or things may be happening which weaken the relationship and he turns cold towards her. But then suddenly he remembers all the good things that their relationship brings to his life and is instantly falling for her again. I think we can all relate to this.

It happens to everyone around the world in all countries and in all cities, its human nature that people run hot and cold with each other; that we have arguments and disagreements but then realise that it’s not worth the trouble and become friends again. It’s all part of a relationship with someone whether it be friendship or even more that the relationship becomes under pressure and one or both people are unhappy for a while but because it’s that one special person that they fell in love with or became best friends with that they love them unconditionally even though hate may be trying to overpower love. This is shown when the poet writes ‘I love you only because it’s you the one I love; I hate you deeply, and hating you Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you is that I do not see you but love you blindly.’ (the second verse), it illustrates the idea that he loves her unconditionally and no amount of hate he may feel can overpower that, that we as human love the ones dearest to us blindly we love them without thinking like its second nature to us. This happens in families, if siblings have a fight over something they still love each other blindly so they get over it and become civil again.

It’s human nature to love people in this way and we all do it, so it’s a very relevant theme that this poet has chosen. In the second half of the poem we see the relationship between the poet and this woman in a different more negative light; I would say this is the hate in the relationship coming through, the part which may be putting them under pressure and making him inclined to leave her. This hate may have come from the fact that he is consumed by the fire of love and then drenched with the cold reality and the agony when the relationship is under pressure from fights or arguments. This is really relevant in the world today people get so consumed by something they think is good that when something bad happens because of the good thing they over look no matter how bad it may be because of utter love or passion for that thing. This may be anything from love to a career and the truth is we all do it because we don’t want to have to face the fact that maybe we will have to leave the thing that we love so much because they have hurt us again its human nature to want to be happy and we think if we push through the bad then it will get better but often this is not true and it’s hard to make the right choice.

In the last verse of this poem the poet writes ‘In this part of the story I am the one who Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you, Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.’ This shows us that he understands that the relationship is built purely on his misconception of the situation he knows that he overlooks the bad things and blindly loves her; the line which illustrates this to us the most is when he says ‘love, in fire and blood’ he is saying to us that yes there is warmth and the passion of love but also blood, blood being the arguments and hurt he feels. So In this poem we are shown this relationship which is ultimately built up of love and passion but has bad aspects the sometimes over power the good aspects, and we are shown that because he loves her so much he blindly loves her and stays with her anyway.

But this would put their relationship under pressure because eventually the bad will build up so much that it will over flow and overpower the good things and they will end up apart and probably more hurt then they would have been if they had tried to fix it or leave each other for a while. We are also taught a lesson about human nature towards people we love as well and it is a valuable one to carry through life and is relevant to everyone, everywhere and can ultimately decide your happiness and emotional well being and it also shows us that there is such thing as a love hate relationship and that they can you make you very unhappy at times and that it can deprive you of peace by making you become cruel to your own heart and the other persons heart by trying to bury those doubts. I think the poet is trying to tell us that even if the person makes you so happy at times if they make you sad more than they make you happy they are not the one for you.