Octavio Paz
Between going and staying
the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.
Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.
Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.
The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.
I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.
Speaker - The voice behind this poem sounds like a calm man thinking of his mistakes.
Imagery - The speaker uses imagery by saying " i find myself in the middle of an eye, staring at myself" which I think it means that he's realizing a couple things. It also sounds like he's talking about about the end of the day like the night because he says " The circular afternoon is now a bay where the world in stillness rocks." meaning that at the end of the afternoon the world just stays still and sleeps, because stillness symbolizes sleep, or no action going on.
Figurative Language - He compares the world to a rock because the rock is always still and so therefore he uses a rock symbolizing the world at night because the world is also still.
Tone - The emotion in this poem sounds relieved, him knowing that he has problems but that soon they'll all go away.
Theme - The message sent is to not give up on something that there would be times when you feel really pressured like " you looking at yourself."
the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.
Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.
Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.
The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.
I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.
Speaker - The voice behind this poem sounds like a calm man thinking of his mistakes.
Imagery - The speaker uses imagery by saying " i find myself in the middle of an eye, staring at myself" which I think it means that he's realizing a couple things. It also sounds like he's talking about about the end of the day like the night because he says " The circular afternoon is now a bay where the world in stillness rocks." meaning that at the end of the afternoon the world just stays still and sleeps, because stillness symbolizes sleep, or no action going on.
Figurative Language - He compares the world to a rock because the rock is always still and so therefore he uses a rock symbolizing the world at night because the world is also still.
Tone - The emotion in this poem sounds relieved, him knowing that he has problems but that soon they'll all go away.
Theme - The message sent is to not give up on something that there would be times when you feel really pressured like " you looking at yourself."
The poem focuses a lot on personification (ex."...the day wavers, in love with its own transparency"). The author uses personification to represent the overall meaninglessness of day, material items, etc. I agree with the theme but it also could be the author saying that nothing really matters. The speaker seems to be caught in a state of overthinking. I disagree with the speaker being just calm because I think it is much more than that. The speaker is thinking way too hard about all in existence, but realizes that life is going to be okay. I agree that the tone is a feeling of relief because the speaker seems to be at peace with whatever they were thinking about at the end of the poem.
ReplyDeleteWell I've also read this poem because I chose the same poet. But I like for your theme because I never even thought about that being a reason, so it opened my eyes even more while reading this. For your figurative language you should identify that it is personification even though most students would be able to tell. You should also try to give more examples of figurative language so we can feel the impact of them. I disagree with your tone though, I believe it is more worried than relieved because after he tells what he wants to say he is paused indicating he doesn't know what to do. Overall I enjoyed reading how you interpreted to poem and I liked your reasons behind why you said what you did.
ReplyDeleteWell I've also read this poem because I chose the same poet. But I like for your theme because I never even thought about that being a reason, so it opened my eyes even more while reading this. For your figurative language you should identify that it is personification even though most students would be able to tell. You should also try to give more examples of figurative language so we can feel the impact of them. I disagree with your tone though, I believe it is more worried than relieved because after he tells what he wants to say he is paused indicating he doesn't know what to do. Overall I enjoyed reading how you interpreted to poem and I liked your reasons behind why you said what you did.
ReplyDelete