Analysis of Ernesto Cardenal’s Zero Hour

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 9, 2025

Zero Hour (1957; 1960) is the best-known example of Ernesto Cardenal’s “documentary” poetry and provides a fine example of the exteriorista poetry with which he is identified. The poem was originally conceived of as a longer epic poem about Central America, similar to Pablo Neruda’s more geographically expansive Canto general. Zero Hour is one of a series of poems in which Cardenal documents the long history of oppression and international intervention in Central America and in his native Nicaragua. Originally published in 1957 in the Revista mexicana de literatura, the authorized edition came out in 1960.

Although the poet and this particular poem are often identified with the fight to overthrow the Somoza dynasty, Zero Hour was written more than two decades before the Sandinista revolution. Because the poem celebrates the historical figure from whom the Sandinistas took their name (Augusto César Sandino), the poem is often associated with the decades-long struggle of the Sandinistas against the Somoza dictatorship, culminating in its defeat in 1979.

Zero Hour consists of an introduction and three parts. The introduction establishes the environment of Central America under dictatorship:
“Tropical nights in Central America, / with moonlit lagoons and volcanoes / and lights from presidential palaces, / barracks and sad curfew warnings.”
The introit found in this introductory part, “Watchman! What hour is it of the night? / Watchman! What hour is it of the night?” was taken from the Bible (Isaiah 21:11) and was added to the poem in 1956 after the poet’s religious conversion. It is the first example of Cardenal’s use of biblical quotations in his poems.

The first section following the introduction explains the economic factors behind the politics of the “banana republics.” The second section depicts the struggle of Sandino, a member of the Nicaraguan aristocracy who led and fought alongside his countrymen against the U.S. Marines in the 1920s and 1930s. This section ends with the clandestine execution of Sandino on the orders of Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio “Tacho” Somoza.

The final section recalls the 1954 “April Rebellion”—a failed attempt to oust Somoza in which Cardenal took part. This section also graphically documents examples of torture under Somoza.

The epic, encyclopedic, and historical character of Zero Hour evidences the influence of Pablo Neruda’s Canto general (1950) and of Ezra Pound. The poem is also an excellent example of Cardenal’s exteriorista (objective as opposed to subjective) poetry and of one of its most noteworthy features, intertextuality—the borrowing and incorporating of disparate sources into the poem.

Cardenal’s use of quotes—from telegrams to speeches made by the president of the United States, even to the inclusion of the song “Adelita”—creates an oral and multidiscursive actuality within the poem. The poet’s belief that “everything fits in poetry” is evident in his lists of international companies exploiting Central America. Similar to Pound’s collage techniques, Cardenal’s juxtaposition of facts, quotes, and lists is intended to evoke greater meanings, requiring the reader to piece together various discursive components of the text.