Salinas

I like Dave's analysis.

My thoughts are kind of scattered at the moment, so bear with me. The poem is powerful in part because the violent imagery is the antithesis of what we would expect love poetry to sound like. He has to forcefully remove the presence of the beloved in order to reach a higher "spiritual" plane. In a way it's like San Juan de la Cruz's "Noche oscura;" the soul has to shake off all vestiges of the physical to reach a more pure union. That this is accomplished through the violent imagery makes it jarring, perhaps, but strangely beautful.

Presence, absence, and memory are a running theme in La voz a ti debida. It's very melancholy, but in a way, hopeful. The beloved is all the more present by her absence. (**Real life just intruded; Gabe had a video game crisis and has derailed my train of thought, never to be recovered.)