'As one listens to the rain' a poem, a feeling, an emotion, by Octavio Paz.

About the author:

Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City. He was a Mexican poet and diplomat. On his father's side, his grandfather was one of the first authors to write a novel with an expressly Indian theme. Thanks to his grandfather's extensive library, Paz came into early contact with literature. Like his grandfather, his father was also an active political journalist.

In 1937, Paz travelled to Valencia, Spain, to participate in the Second International Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers. Upon his return to Mexico in 1938, he became one of the founders of the journal, Taller (Workshop), a magazine which signaled the emergence of a new generation of writers in Mexico. In 1943, he travelled to the USA on a Guggenheim Fellowship where he became immersed in Anglo-American Modernist poetry; two years later, he entered the Mexican diplomatic service and was sent to France, where he wrote his fundamental study of Mexican identity, The Labyrinth of Solitude, and actively participated in various activities and publications organized by the surrealists. In 1962, Paz was appointed Mexican ambassador to India: an important moment in both the poet's life and work, as witnessed in various books written during his stay there. In India, Paz completed several works, including ‘El mono gramático’(The Monkey Grammarian) and ‘Ladera este’ (Eastern Slope). While in India, he met numerous writers of a group known as the Hungry Generation and had a profound influence on them. He met his first wife Elena Garro a writer in Mexico City and was married to her in 1937, they were together until 1959. They had a daughter Helena Laura Paz Garro. In 1965, he married Marie-José Tramini, a French woman who would be his wife for the rest of his life. In October 1968, he resigned from the diplomatic service in protest of the Mexican government's massacre of student demonstrators in the ‘Plaza de las Tres Culturas’ in Tlatelolco. Paz has continued his work as an editor and publisher, having founded two important magazines dedicated to the arts and politics: Plural (1971-1976) and Vuelta, which he has been publishing since 1976. In 1980, he was named honorary doctor at Harvard. Recent prizes include the Cervantes award in 1981 - the most important award in the Spanish-speaking world - and the prestigious American Neustadt Prize in 1982.

A collection of Paz's poems (written between 1957 and 1987) was published in 1990. In 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died of cancer on April 19, 1998, in Mexico City. Guillermo Sheridan, who was named by Paz as director of the Octavio Paz Foundation in 1998, published a book ‘Poeta con paisaje’ (2004) with several biographical essays about Octavio’s life up to 1998, when he died.

A Summary of the poem:

The poem “As one listen to the rain” is written by Octavia Paz. The speaker talks in first person and seems to be human when he mentions simple things such as, "entering our forehead" and "all five senses awake" and compares himself to rain, to "listen to me as one listens to the rain." In our opinion he seems to talking to a loved character seen by the words choice, such as “you are you and your body of steam, you and your face of night, you and your hair, unhurried lightning.” By experience when you hear the rain you acknowledge it and you know it’s there without needing to focus or see it, which is what I believe the author is trying to get through from the poem; however at the end of the poem the speaker is teary as he repeats to "listen to me as one listens to the rain.". The person which the poet is talking about is the living paradox, like this one is there but at the time time she’s not there. There are various instances in the poem where it is seen the person had a physical presence but the suddenly become like rain, just to be felt not held. The whole poem goes through the beauty of this person and how this person can hold you emotionally.

After looking through the poem a thousand times, one can interpret the poem many ways and the one thing that stick out the most is the fact that he’s talking to a loved one. Whom he wishes for them to understand him but certain quotes in the poem stick out the fact that he can’t have them or was playing him in a way, the quote “ you are you and your body of steam.” The loved person is there but not complete and he wishes to know them more or to have more of them in a way that they’ll listen to them as if he were rain. “you cross the street and enter our forehead.” This quote makes it seem more likes it’s a lover or someone they lust for but can’t have, because they seem to be leaving them and yet when they “ cross the street” the lover enters their forehead (in other words, their thoughts) and it ends with “footsteps of water across our eyes, listen to me as one listens to the rain.” The Speaker is once again left and discontent knowing he can’t have this ourstery person. This oursterious person is like the rain the more you get into it the more it submerge it into you. Just like this rain you cant get enough of this person. You will always want for more and more. The tone of the poem was certainly dark at the beginning showing littlelust or desperateness while at the end of the poem the poem gets lighter. If we take this poem rationally, we wont get any meaning out of it. This poem is rather to be felt and not discussed. It’s the sense that how a person has made a deep impact on you that you don’t think rationally but just get lost in the persons mesmeric ways.

A Critical Analysis:

Imagery and Figurative Language-

“Listen to me as one listens to the rain,

not attentive, not distracted,

light footsteps, thin drizzle,...”
 This quote uses imagery to describe how the speaker wants to be listened to. He uses the sense of hearing to formulate a picture that we can envision. This impacts the poem by adding emphasis to the senses to describe a vision of nature.

“...your fingers of water dampen my forehead,...”
 This quote uses personification to compare the hands of a person to nature. This impacts the poems by showing the reader how close the speaker relates to nature and how he describes his relationship with it as that with a person.

“...listen to the rain running over the terrace,

the night is now more night in the grove,

lightning has nestled among the leaves,...”
 This quote uses imagery to describe a scene that has a major factor of nature involved. The speaker uses sound to describe something that you could envision as well. This impacts the poem by showing that by having this strong of connection with his surroundings, he can easily describe it to others, so they can share the experience with him.

Tone- The tone of the poem is very peaceful. It is calming and serene in feeling. It relaxes the reader, while the speaker describes his view of nature.

Theme-The theme of this poem is that you have to notice the little things. The little details could be the most beautiful details. Another theme is that nature could easily be overlooked, but when you pay attention, nature will provide you with the most beautiful memories. One theme could be that you need to cherish the beautiful things you see. If you don’t, then you might forget about them and not be able to share that beauty with other people.

Repetition- Repetition is a commonly used literary device in this work. The speaker repeats multiple parts of the narrative. For example, when he says: “Listen to me as one listens to the rain”. Or when he is referring to how the rain hits the asphalt, or describing lightening as he described in the story. The speaker also repeats the start of a sentence multiple times in a section. This use of repetition can convey the speaker trying to emphasize his point and his description. He is trying to capture the reader’s attention, and keeps it to tell his perspective of nature.

A comparison with Lord Byron:

Octavio Paz is remembered as one of the finest Latin-American poets of the 20^th century. He is remembered both as a poet and a diplomat. He was also awarded the Nobel prize for his outstanding contribution to Literature in 1990.

His works were greatly influenced by Marxism, Surrealism, existentialism, Buddhism, and Hinduism and consisted of beautiful surreal imagery. He was a brilliant romantic & metaphysical poet and is compared to the likes of Lord Byron and Pushkin for his romantic epics like ‘As one listens to the rain’, ‘The Double Flame’ etc. Paz is celebrated as one the best romantic poets of all time, and is even compared to Lord Byron due to his prolific romantic masterpieces.

Octavio Paz’s romantic epic ‘As one listens to the rain’ can be critically compared to Lord Byron’s ‘She walks in beauty’. Octavio Paz was a romantic poet who used metaphysics and surreal imagery to beautify his poems, on the other hand Although Lord Byron was a hopeless romantic he often used realism in literature beautifying his poems through realistic metaphors and imagery.

Both the poems, ‘As one listens to the rain’ and ‘She walks in beauty’ are much alike due to their theme and tone. Both of them have a very romantic and lustful tone. The narrator in both the poems, is complimenting and admiring the beauty of a loved one. Byron in ‘She walks in beauty’ uses extremely beautiful words to depict the beauty of the narrator’s lover. Byron uses simple imagery to beautifully depict the woman’s charm. On the other hand, Paz uses complex imagery to romanticize the depiction.

Byron being the hopeless romantic he was, lays heavy emphasis on admiring the beauty of his lover. He compares her to the ‘night’, the ‘starry skies’ etc. On the other hand instead of complimenting the lover in the poem, Paz compares the beauty of his lover to the beauty of the nature. The tone in Paz’s ‘As one listens to the rain’ is very soothing and compassionate. Paz uses heavy surreal imagery to make the reader see from the narrator’s perspective and that’s what makes the poem beautiful. ‘She walks in beauty’ though is more of a direct admiration of the narrator with the use of heavy metaphors.

Thus we can observe how both the poems by the two best romantic poems are similar and different in many ways. Both the poems have their different X-factors thus making them unique and a romantic masterpiece.

By:

Hubert Ramdinsanga 1640306

Abhinav Singh 1640301

Vineet Wilson 1640320

Eniyavan Siva 1640361

Vaibhav Singh Rawat 1640318