What’s Up With the Title?

The title of this poem, Shmoopers, is—wait for it—"III." Are you impressed? Well, no, we can't really blame you. You see, this poem is the third poem in Neruda's Book of Questions, which was meant to be read all together. That doesn't mean that the poems don't stand on their own, though. Each one, like "III," could be read independently. At the same time, these poems (74 to be exact) all took the same form: short, sparse, but evocative questions (316 to be exact). Here, then, we're presented with the third ("III") in Neruda's series of question-poems. Any questions?