Canto general

Canto general, an epic poem of Latin America by Pablo Neruda, published in two volumes in 1950. Mixing his communist sympathies with national pride, Neruda depicts Latin American history as a grand, continuous struggle against oppression.

Comprising more than 300 poems, Canto general is arranged into 15 sections, or cantos, that chronicle successive historical periods and follow the foibles of famous emperors, explorers, dictators, and freedom fighters. The opening poem, “Amor América” (“America, My Love”), is a lyrical ode to the continent as it existed before the arrival of Spaniards, when it was troubled only with wars between Indian peoples. Other notable individual poems in the epic include the Whitmanesque “Alturas de Macchu Picchu” (“The Heights of Macchu Picchu”) and the patriotic “Canto General de Chile” (“General Song of Chile”).