No More Clichés- Poem by Octavio Paz
Beautiful face
That like a daisy opens its petals to the sun
So do you
Open your face to me as I turn the page.
Enchanting smile
Any man would be under your spell,
Oh, beauty of a magazine.
How many poems have been written to you?
How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice?
To your obsessive illusion
To you manufacture fantasy.
But today I won't make one more Cliché
And write this poem to you.
No, no more clichés.
This poem is dedicated to those women
Whose beauty is in their charm,
In their intelligence,
In their character,
Not on their fabricated looks.
This poem is to you women,
That like a Shahrazade wake up
Everyday with a new story to tell,
A story that sings for change
That hopes for battles:
Battles for the love of the united flesh
Battles for passions aroused by a new day
Battle for the neglected rights
Or just battles to survive one more night.
Yes, to you women in a world of pain
To you, bright star in this ever-spending universe
To you, fighter of a thousand-and-one fights
To you, friend of my heart.
From now on, my head won't look down to a magazine
Rather, it will contemplate the night
And its bright stars,
And so, no more clichés.
Biography:
Octavio Paz, a skilled poet and essayist. He was born in Mexico City on March 31. Following the tradition of his family, he became a writer. He published his first work of poetry, Luna silvestre, in 1933. Later on in life he helped found Taller, a literary magazine. Paz was even appointed the Mexican ambassador to India. Paz did a lot of things in his lifetime and winning the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1990 is one of them.
Summary and Speaker:
The poem is written in the point of view of a man, possibly a bachelor. The poem is dedicated to women who are beautiful on the inside instead of following the cliche of writing to women who are pretty on the inside. The speaker also discusses how women who are pretty inside have to fight more for love and intrigue men in a different way.
Imagery/Figurative Language:
One of the ways the poem uses imagery is by referencing the story of Dante and Beatrice in the line, “How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice?” This impacts the story by explaining how much love the writers have to who their writing, by making a comparison to a famous story. The poem uses figurative language when he makes the metaphor of beautiful women to magazines by saying how he sees women when he “turns the page.” This show us how the speaker sees women who are only beautiful in the outside, as fabricated and unreal, like the women in magazines. In that same line the speaker also talks about when the woman “opens her face” this could be figurative language too, as how women probably don’t literally open their faces. This line gives an edge to the poem by adding the hyperbolised statement to make the poem feel sumptuous.
Tone:
This poem, ironically has a little bit of a cliche tone. Lots of poems, when dedicated to love, tend to compose the poem in such a way that it puts the subject, who is being given the love, is placed as an equal to a goddess or anything that is high above man. This poem does that by referring to women, who are pretty on the inside, as “bright stars.” The overall tone in result, is affectionate.
Theme:
The speaker is very against cliches. As a result of this, instead of writing to the women who are fashionable and radiant on the outside, he writes to the ones who are that on the inside. He also wants us to know that some women have to fight harder for love since they can’t get it easily as others. In the theme of anti-cliches the speaker says how some women are cliche by having “fabricated looks.” In the end, the speaker wants us to realize that a woman is truly beautiful and worthy if she’s attractive in the inside.
Aspect of poem’s form:
One thing I noticed is how the poem is broken down. Each stanza begins with it’s first line being a big statement. Whatever the big statement is the rest of the lines that follow are dedicated or are elaborations of that statement. You could piece together the first line of each stanza and have a coherent statement. Like so, “Beautiful face… Enchanting smile… How many poems have been written to you?... But today I won't make one more Cliché… This poem is dedicated to those women… This poem is to you women… Yes, to you women in a world of pain… From now on, my head won't look down to a magazine.” You could essentially get the tone, speaker, and maybe even theme of this poem through the first stanzas. Of course it wouldn’t be very efficient but each first line is its own little thesis for the whole stanza.
Poem:
Biography:
I agree that the poem has a bit of a cliche tone. It also seems like the speaker is making fun of cliche poems but wants to show that love poems don't always have to be cliche. I like the figurative language that the speaker used "From now on, my head won't look down to a magazine." The quote shows that he now realizes that beauty on magazines are fabricated to only show the exterior beauty of people. I also like how the speaker's ideas of beauty change in the poem: "But today I won't make one more Cliché." I agree with your statement about the layout of the poem. Each first line of the stanza shows an important statement. It is followed by support and details for his statement.
ReplyDeleteI love how everything is organised and how there is good structure. The wording is good and the vocabulary is quite substantial. I think that picking a poet that is closer to your own culture is a really good idea. Even though many people would believe that you are trying to be lazy I feel that you are capable of finding a deeper meaning to the poem than you would if you read a poem by somebody with whom you cant connect emotionally to. But everything was quite nice and I enjoyed reading your finished product.
ReplyDeleteAlex,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you regarding the speaker section. As you mentioned, the poem is written by someone who wants to complement a woman on her non-cliche beautiful aspects. He also makes a legitimate point in saying that those who don't fit the social norms of "beauty" will generally have a harder time finding love than those that conform to the socials norms. Regarding the imagery/figurative language section, you point out some more good points about metaphors that the poet uses to symbolize the subject's abstract beauty. Lines like the ones you selected support this concept further. For theme and tone sections, I agree mostly with what you are saying. The only part I do not agree with would be when you mentioned the sub-obvious cliche the author adds in. (Placing the woman's character higher than that of the man.) Without a doubt, if the author decided to place the woman's "level" equal to or even below that of his own, he would encounter some trouble when he tried to appeal the woman. (Dating advice with Wyatt 2K16!!!) Otherwise, I completely agree with the points you are making about the poem.
P.S.:
LAS PANTERAS!!!!!!
Iagree with uou on the theme and speaker aspect. I think the poem perfectly touches on the topic of judging what is on the outside. We have a problem of only wanting to love people with beautiful physical features, but yet we tend to neglect what really matters, which is what is on the inside. Poeple who are truly beautiful have a beautiful mind, heart, personality, and intellegence. If we all only want to find love in those who have a pretty face, but they have nothing to distingish them from being another person who depends on their looks, and not on whats inside, then we would just be looking at a magzine picture. We all need to be more thoughtful, and choose people that we want to love based on the greatness on the inside, the goodness of their heart, their intellegence, and their shining personality. We must remember that beauty is only skin deep, or, as Paz states, another page in a magazine.
ReplyDelete