A Dog Has Died

Neruda uses parallelism, or the repetition of the same phrase or syntactical form in close proximity, multiple times within his poem. Repeating the same words in the same order creates a rhythmic and semantic effect that encourages readers to consider the multiple meanings and valences of the statements being proposed. One example of parallelism in Neruda’s poem is the repetition of the title with the general article “A” changing to the possessive “My” in the first line. Another is the immediate repetition of “I believe in a heaven […] yes, I believe in a heaven” (Lines 9-10). A semantic parallelism bookends the poem, with the first and last stanzas repeating the fact and finality of the dog’s death.

Repetition allows us the opportunity to consider subtext. For instance, the speaker’s pained, mournful, and wistful repetition of “I believe in a heaven” is a subtle nod to the comfort that idea of an afterlife offers the bereaved—so tempting that even an atheist can’t help but imagine such a place for his dog. Combined with the clear grief and regret that emerges over the course of the poem, the repetition also echoes with the mounting fear of death.