The Poetry of Paz

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Recommended: Expressionism

Literature possesses a multitude of forms similar to poetry. It adheres to the human emotion as well as the human senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. Poems have the ability to express a story whether it be literal or metaphoric regardless of its length text wise. However, through the author’s use of imagery and diction, the reader is subject to envisioning and capturing the image purposefully being conveyed. In the eyes of renowned poet and essayist, including many other occupation titles, Octavio Paz states, “words refer to another word” (6), therefore stories are independent to their length. Based on Paz’s past history it is evident that he incorporates his experiences as the basis of the structure of his poems and stories.

Paz had two fatherly figures beside him as her grew up and writing became almost natural to him. Paz’s father was a journalist as well as a supporter of the Mexican Revolution. Paz’s grandfather was a novelist and a publisher, so evidently writing was in his gene pool. Through their work it is evident that Paz possessed more than enough knowledge about what to incorporate in his own literary works because Paz learned how to write passionately about what he believed in. In the year, 1944, he had earned the opportunity and obtained the Guggenheim fellowship in which he began living in New York and San Francisco. As a result he broadened his knowledge of North American poetry initiating his reflections on Mexico and the underdevelopment from the vantage point of overdevelopment. Paz lived in the village, Mixcoac, in Mexico City which had been impoverished by both civil war and the revolution. Paz remains loyal to his heritage and from time to time includes it in his work such as his poem “Return”. ...

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...lity to respect it. His writing speaks to the reader on a higher note, consistently sticking to one theme.

Works Cited

1. Academy of American Poets. "Octavio Paz- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 1997. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .

2. "Octavio Paz - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 26 Mar 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html

3. Bloom, Harold. Octavio Paz. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House, 2002.

4. Paz, Octavio. Alternating Current. New York: Viking, 1973.

5. Paz, Octavio, and Eliot Weinberger. The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987. New York: New Directions, 1991.

6. Paz, Octavio, Eliot Weinberger, and G. Aroul. Selected Poems. New York: New Directions, 1984.

7. Rahman, Shaifur. European Time. Kindle ed. Amazon.com, 2010.

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