Written when Neruda was 19, this collection has sold more copies than virtually any other book of poetry ever published. Its erotic directness, its sensory overwhelm, its young man's pure hunger: these are qualities that make it many readers' first serious experience of poetry. "Tonight I can write the saddest lines" remains one of the most quoted poems in the world. It also represents the most accessible entry point into the Spanish-language tradition.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.