In Pablo Neruda's Sonnet VI ("Lost in the forest..."), what do sound devices add to the poem?I'm especially confused about the effect of the only...

In Pablo Neruda's early poetry, he used stanzas, rhyme and
syntax, however, as he got older, for instance publishing a book in 1933, his poetic
technique changed drastically.

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In [Residence on
Earth], Pablo Neruda moves beyond the lucid, conventional lyricism
of Twenty Love Poems, abandoning normal syntax, rhyme, and stanzaic
organization to create a highly personalized poetic
technique.

It is impossible
to say what the author of poetry or the painter of a portrait means, unless he or she
explains the piece. Different people will perceive different meanings to all kinds of
art: in this case, Neruda's poem, "Lost in the
Forest."

First of all, I do not think that "mind/behind" is
a purposeful rhyme. There is no other rhyme used in the poem. I can only guess that the
words are close because of what Neruda was trying to say in his
poem. It has also been noted (I would assume by those who spoke his native tongue) that
some of Neruda's musical quality is lost when his poems are translated from the Spanish
to the English. I can only assume this to be
true.

Generally, a poem is written to
be musical. The poetic devices an author uses are especially important to the sound of
the poem, and this is also why poetry is best read aloud. Poetic devices that lend
themselves to the musical quality of a poem include assonance, consonance, alliteration,
and onomatopoeia. The ear picks up these things much more quickly than the
eye.

We find assonance in the following line that uses the
"soft" "I" sound, as found in "whisper." Note the sound of the words: "twig," "lifted,"
"its," "whisper," and "lips." The repetition of these sounds support the sense of a
"whisper."

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...twig
and lifted its whisper to my
thirsty lips...

However,
traditional poetic devices, in terms of assonance, don't seem to be used purposefully to
achieve a specific response from the reader.

Another thing
that is present that is generally considered a poetic device is onomatopoeia. Words that
fall into this category are: "whisper," "cracked," and "muffled." Poetic devices are
supposed to provide a poem with a musical sound; perhaps the reason that I do not find a
musical quality is that it has been translated from the Spanish,
or that the topic is
not one that makes Neruda feel musical. The
tone of the poem (and the mood) seem to speak to the loss of something in childhood.
Words that set the mood for me are: "lost (used twice)," "broke," "thirsty," "cracked,"
"torn," "muffled," "darkness," "cried," and "wounded."

With
these words in mind, I feel that Neruda is attempting to share with
the reader the sadness over something lost of his childhood, and for me the words listed
actually achieve this, where assonance, consonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia
traditionally do in other poetry, but not
here.

Traditional poetic devices are seen in the
work of Poe and Coleridge, but Robert Frost commented on the use of sounds in
poetry:

'One
of the things that I notice with myself is that I can't make certain word sounds go
together, sometimes they won't "say." This has got something to do with the way one
vowel runs into another, the way one syllable runs into another. And then I never know —
I don't like to reason about that too much. I don't understand it, but I've changed
lines because there was something about them that my ear refused. And I suppose it has
something to do with vowels and consonants.... I don't want any science of
it.'

Perhaps Neruda's words
don't "say" to us here.