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Taking as a point of departure recent work on the role of affect (or, more bluntly, emotion) in the reading and writing of literature, this essay takes a fresh look at perhaps the most anthologized poem in modem Spanish-American literature, -the twentieth poem of Neruda's Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (1924). Announcing its affective investments already in its famoso first line ("Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche"), "Poema 20" is not only an affecting poem, but a poem about affect, about its regu- lation and release. The larger aim of the discussion is to propose that an aesthetics of sentiment is a necessary -as well as a much-needed-complement to critical approaches that highlight poetry's cultural and political engagements. Feeling is first-or at least, fundamental.
