La Voz a Ti Debida Anaylsis

Pedro Salinas has a reputation of one of the great love poets of his time. In his poem ‘La voz a ti debida’ he explores a deeper meaning of love by comparing appearance with reality and the superficial with the transcendent. This particular poem is one part of a trilogy of love poems written by the author between 1933-1939. All three were well received. The other two poems ‘Razon de amor’ and ‘Largo lamento’ describe the reason for love and the pain of separation, whereas the first focuses on the confusion of love. The works of Pedro Salinas were referred to as “prosias” by Federico Lorca; a famous Spanish poet from a similar era. Prosias is something Lorca used to describe a work wherein there is no distinguishable pattern, rather a mixture between prose and poetry. Testament to this fact there seems to be no recognisable pattern throughout the poem. Pedro Salinas uses language that is not conventional to the poetry of his time; he uses a lot of symbolism, metaphor and imagery. However, the love is described negatively – it does not focus on a particular character, the benefits of being loved, being in love or on a particular love story. There is no reference of love between two specific people therefore illustrating how Salinas refers to love in a different manor to his contemporaries. Salinas writes in a very natural way; he does not use rhyme, specific line length and there does not appear to be any kind of prominent patterns. The poem is an exploration into the absolute, wit and beauty. Salinas associates love with confusion, this is made clear in the first few lines of the poem in which he uses imagery of a mask, he is showing that love can be deceiving and changes the way someone can think, act and behave:

‘Extraviadamente amantes, por el mundo.
¡Amar! ¡Qué confusión sin par! ¡Cuántos errores!
Besar rostros en vez de máscaras amadas.’

The imagery in the poem such as the choir of mermaids symbolizes