Past in Perspective.

Born on July 12, 1904, Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes y Basoalto, the man adopted the pseudonym 'Neruda' under which he would become famous. Since an early age, Neruda was lucky that he found the poet Gabriela Mistral as one of his teachers who were crucial to his literary developments.

Apart from being a poet, Neruda had his political convictions in communism. He was an ardent supporter of Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro. He paid the price for his loyalty to Allende, once Allende's government was overthrown and Chile went under the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Neruda is best known for his collection of 'Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair.' While gauging the reverberations of Neruda's poetry, it is sufficient to say that he received Nobel Prize for...