Pablo Neruda’s “To be men! That is the Stalinist law!” is a piece seldom found in anthologies, especially those translated into English. He wrote this poem in 1953 upon the death of Joseph Stalin, Neruda’s hero. The work is twenty lines long, which separates into uneven verse paragraphs.
First Verse Paragraph: “To be men! That is the Stalinist law!”
In the first verse paragraph, the speaker declares, “To be men! That is the stalinist law!” The speaker is exhorting his listeners to follow the great leader Stalin. He continues by telling them that they all must “learn from Stalin.” The great leader is full of “sincere intensity” and “concrete clarity.”
Second Verse Paragraph: “Stalin is the noon”
Then the speaker metaphorically compares Stalin to “noon,” the time of day when the sun stands overhead at its highest. He is implying that Stalin is the highest authority, because he is “the maturity of man and the peoples.” This leader has the wisdom of age far above all other men and “the peoples.”
The speaker then exhorts his listeners again, calling them “Stalinists,” saying “let us bear this title with pride.” He encourages the Stalinists to burst with pride that they are part of the great leader’s movement. He speaks to “Stalinist workers, clerks, women” pressing them to “take care of this day!” He wants the Stalinists to preserve the rich political climate provided by their great leader.
Third Verse Paragraph: “The light has not vanished”
The speaker waxes ultra-melodramatic, describing the magnificent atmosphere and just general good times brought in by leader Stalin. The speaker reports that life is bright and warm. The “invincible” leader has ushered in a tremendous period of growth: “There is only the growth of /
Light, bread, fire and hope.” Everyone will be fed and clothed; everyone will be happy and filled with hope for every coming tomorrow.
Fourth Verse Paragraph: “In recent years the dove”
In the fourth verse paragraph, the speaker employs the symbol of peace, “the dove,” reporting that the once “persecuted” bird has now “found herself on his shoulders.” Now the “giant” of compassion, wisdom, and all godly things has lifted peace to the “heights of his forehead.”
Final Verse Paragraph: “A wave beats against the stones of the shore”
The final verse paragraph consists of only two lines: “A wave beats against the stones of the shore. / But Malenkov will continue his work.” In these two lines, the speaker using the fact of sea life, implies that there are those who would dispute the great victor’s magnanimity, and even though he has shuffled off the mortal coil, the trusty leader Georgy Malenkov will replace him and continue what the great one has started.
Commentary
Pablo Neruda is one with the vast sludge of mediocrity, whose writings would have long passed into oblivion, instead of hoisting the poetaster into the Nobel Laureateship, had not the radical left-wing noise machine, so obtrusive in American and European art spheres, hovered around him and elevated him to a prominence which he in no way deserves.
According to Octavio Paz, Marxists poets of the early 20th century became “entangled in a mesh of lies, falsehoods, deceits and perjuries, until they lost their souls.” This description accurately applies to Pablo Neruda, whose hero, Joseph Stalin, is credited with the deaths of upwards of 60 million people.
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