Quick Revision
| Stage of life | The foot | Key image |
|---|---|---|
| Childhood | dreams of flying | butterfly, apple |
| Growing up | learns its limits, is defeated | stones, bits of glass, streets, ladders |
| Adulthood | imprisoned, lonely, blind | condemned to live in a shoe; like a blind man |
| Physical change | hard and misshapen | nails hard as horn; toes like eyeless reptiles, worms |
| Old age | rough and worn | callused, faint volcanoes of death |
| Working life | never rests | fields, mines, markets, and ministries |
| Death | buried, unaware | so that it could fly / or … become an apple |
Remember: Neruda - Chilean, Nobel 1971, real name Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, pen name from Jan Neruda; translated by Alastair Reid.
[Exam Tip] — "Condemned to live in a shoe" is literally a prisoner, but its meaning is forced to give up its dreams.