Aileen Lazaro

The Street

Octavio Paz

Here is a long and silent street. 

I walk in blackness and I stumble and fall 

and rise, and I walk blind, my feet 

trampling the silent stones and the dry leaves. 

Someone behind me also tramples, stones, leaves: 

if I slow down, he slows; 

if I run, he runs I turn : nobody. 

Everything dark and door less, 

only my steps aware of me, 

I turning and turning among these corners 

which lead forever to the street 

where nobody waits for, nobody follows me, 

where I pursue a man who stumbles 

and rises and says when he sees me : nobody.

The darkness of the image of the street complements the poem by because it shows the avenues and turns as depicted while also having the same sense of mystery. The unpleasant sensation of the street also connects with the sensation of the poem of being followed.

Biography of Octavio Paz

Born 1914, Octavio Paz grew up in the country of Mexico during the Civil War, and supported the republican cause. Influenced by his intellectual grandfather, Paz always had access an excellent library. Later in his life, when he was a established poet, Paz visted Paris where surrealism was a major component in literature. Throughout his life he wrote poems in both the Spanish and English language, including works like "Blanco". Towards the end of Paz's life, he received the Nobel Prize in literature.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Octavio-Paz#googDisableSync

Analysis

Paraphrasing; someone is following the main character and mimicking the character's actions. When the narrator turns around to check who is there, no one is. The same narrator later follows a person who cannot see him either.

Speaker: The speaker is wary about the circumstance and is paranoid, as seen when they turn around. The speaker is also clumsy, shown when they stumble and trample over stones, making the speaker appear defenseless.

Figurative language: Octavio uses "silent stones" as alteration and personification to contrast the darkness and disunity of the poem with the similarity of words. Throughout the poem, the character continues "walk[ing] blind," adding to the continuous metaphor between the darkest and unknown street. The use of hyperbole is manifested when the speaker describes "corners which lead forever to the street." The word forever in the poem does not mean endlessly; forever, instead, exaggerates the complexity of the street.

Form: Enjambment is used wisely in the poem by ending each line within a fragment of a sentence demonstrating disunity. The lack of a rhyme scheme also exhibits disunity as a result of the enjambment.

Tone: The tone of the speaker, clearly expressed with the redundancy of the words like "silent" or synonyms of darkness, reveals the unsettling feeling of being alone or isolated. The tone the poem also conveys the longing of attention or someone to be aware of the speaker's presence.

Theme: Prolonged isolation can lead to the neglection of others and one's own existence.