Who is Marisol from Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems and what is their importance?

Marisol is one of the two female "characters" that weave in and out of Neruda's poetry - particularly the works found in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Marisol literally means 'Mary Sun' or 'Mary Sea.' Marisol is who Neruda described as being "love in the enchanted countryside, with stars in bold relief at night and dark eyes like the wet sky of Temuco. She appears with all her joyfulness and her lively beauty on every page, surrounded by the waters of the port, and by a half moon over the mountains." In other words, when we read a piece of poetry written by Neruda which has a tone of fresh, passionate, starry-eyed love, he is speaking of Marisol. She appears most often in his earliest works. A good example of her is found in Body of a Woman (p.17), where his ecstasy towards her is evident in phrases such as, "Oh the goblets of the breast! Oh the eyes of absence! Oh the roses of the pubis!" Clearly Neruda is in worshipful wonderment over this divine creature over whom he is lavishing such passion.