3-short essays

Short essay—Pick three out of the following four. Write at least two paragraphs for each essay.
 
1.  Here is Pablo Neruda’s “if you Forget me.” Explicate the poem and explain why this is also a poem about his nation.
 
I want you to know
one thing.
 
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
 
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you, little by little.
 
If suddenly
you forget me,
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
 
If you think it long and mad,