Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market

“Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats (1820)

In this masterpiece, Keats personifies a Grecian urn and narrates stories about the characters on it. Keats uses contrast in some of the images, like when he describes the lovers who are perpetually separated but forever young and beautiful. Keats celebrates the timeless quality of the art he describes, and in a nod to Shakespeare, he suggests art has the power to defeat time and death. Keats writes the poem in strict form and follows a traditional structure while adhering to romantic era qualities of passion, love, and the elevation of art and emotion over ideas of logic and realism.

“Ode to the Onion" by Pablo Neruda (1957)

“Ode to the Onion” shares many similarities with “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market.” Here, Neruda again praises a common object and magnifies its significance with stacked metaphors, grand diction, and political suggestion. He compares the onion to a baby developing in the womb; he compares the dirt in which the onion grows to the ocean and Aphrodite; he compares the flowers of the onion to swords; and he compares the grown onion to a great star or constellation in space. Neruda also celebrates the onion as a jewel of the poor, calling attention to the beauty of the lower class in a clear rejection of bourgeois taste.

“Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda (1957)

Another ode that heavily layers metaphors in description of a common object, this poem celebrates a pair of handwoven socks. The poem opens with an image of common life and suggests a tradition born from necessity and poverty—not of privilege. The socks are handmade, and Neruda compares them to natural imagery like bunnies. The poem ends with Neruda’s comments on the beauty of common things with practical purpose. This poem’s structure is similar to “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” as Neruda uses short line bursts to keep a quick rhythm and to give a marked pace to the verse.