Wind, Water, Stone

BY OCTAVIO PAZ

TRANSLATED BY ELIOT WEINBERGER

for Roger Caillois

Water hollows stone,

wind scatters water,

stone stops the wind.

Water, wind, stone.

Wind carves stone,

stone's a cup of water,

water escapes and is wind.

Stone, wind, water.

Wind sings in its whirling,

water murmurs going by, 

unmoving stone keeps still.

Wind, water, stone.

Each is another and no other:

crossing and vanishing

through their empty names:

water, stone, wind.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/250900

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz.jpg

Biographical Information
Octavio Paz was a Mexican poet, diplomat, and writer. He was born March 31, 1914 and died April 19, 1998. He published is first collection of poems in 1993. He entered the diplomatic service in 1945 and was later appointed the ambassador to India. He produced  more than 30 books and poetry collections in his lifetime.


SIFTT
Speaker- 1st person
Imagery- "Stone stops the wind"
Figurative Language- Personification saying the wind can sing, "water murmurs" is also personification. I think Octavio chose to give these non living things human abilities so readers can understand that these objects all have purposes, and rely on each other to do certain things.

Tone- Peaceful is one tone because the poem takes place outside and the weather seems to be nice. Tranquility is another tone because everything is calm when something happens and there are no sudden burst. Unity is also a tone because throughout the poem when one action happens another actions happens, so there is no independent variables in the story.
Theme- The overall theme in the poem is that when something happens a certain way, something else will be affected. You can't change how things happen  and not expect it to affect you later. But if you have to change something you shouldn't worry too much about the outcome.