Octavio Paz

(March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998 / Mexico City)

poet Octavio Paz
#160 on top 500 poets
Octavio Paz
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Octavio Paz Poems

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Mexican poet, essayist, and political thinker. His works reflect many influences, including Marxism, surrealism, and Aztec mythology. El laberinto de la soledad/The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), the book which brought him to world attention, explores Mexico's heritage. His long poem Piedra del sol/Sun Stone (1957) uses contrasting images, centring on the Aztec Calendar Stone (representing the Aztec universe), to symbolize the loneliness of individuals and their search for union with others. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

In 1962 Paz was appointed Mexican ambassador to India, but resigned in 1968 in protest against the Mexican government's killing of 200 ... more »

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Quotations

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  • ''"Art" is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers.... What we call art is a game.''
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914), Mexican poet. "André Breton or the Quest of the Beginning," Alternating Current (1967).
    139 person liked.
    		57 person did not like.
  • ''Man does not speak because he thinks; he thinks because he speaks. Or rather, speaking is no different than thinking: to speak is to think.''
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914), Mexican poet. "André Breton or the Quest of the Beginning," Alternating Current (1967).
    105 person liked.
    		49 person did not like.
  • If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to t...
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914), Mexican poet. "André Breton or the Quest of the Beginning," Alternating Current (1967).
    56 person liked.
    		19 person did not like.
  • ''Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.''
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914), Mexican poet. "Development and Other Mirages," The Other Mexico: Critique of the Pyramid (1972).
    45 person liked.
    		12 person did not like.
  • ''What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.''
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914), Mexican poet. "Invention, Underdevelopment, Modernity," Alternating Current (1967).
    37 person liked.
    		15 person did not like.
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Comments about Octavio Paz

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  • Gazi Saiful islam (1/5/2014 7:31:00 AM)

    From world literature scene Octavio Paz is my favorite, I just start to translate Paz's poem. One week ago I already translate these as: Across, As One Listens To The Rain, Axis, Between Going and Coming, Brotherhood, Counterparts, Last Dawn, No More Clichés, Passage, Spaces, The Street, The Bridge etc from poemhunter.com. I think next year I can publish a book on Paz and his Peoms.

    18 person liked.
    		19 person did not like.
  • Sayeed Abubakar Sayeed Abubakar (12/28/2012 3:46:00 AM)

    A great poet of the world. He is one of my favorite poems since my university life. I did not know then that my lot will lead me to his country. I feel now happy that my beloved Alma Lorena Lopez Velazquez is a nymph of his country.

    28 person liked.
    		39 person did not like.
  • Koena Mokoena Koena Mokoena (11/18/2011 2:41:00 AM)

    Hey yo! i like to prove a point by identifying the mistakes, hence i like your poem ' Between Going and Coming'. I also compose poems & you can find them on www.poemhunter.com/kfmproductions

    Have a nice day!

    Mr. Koena France Mokoena
    Cell: +27710329734

    31 person liked.
    		54 person did not like.
  • Alex Gomez (6/21/2009 12:55:00 AM)

    I do not know too much about this man, but there is a charter school named after him in Chicago and I attended my first year of schooling there, so he must have been a very influential figure through his words.

    43 person liked.
    		49 person did not like.
  • Narendran Vr (11/15/2004 4:35:00 AM)

    A great poet, and also associated with India, Paz have great influence on contemporary Indian poetry.Poets like K, G.Sankara Pillai have imitated Paz to a great extent.Often misquoted and mis=understood as a marxist poet although a school he do not belongs to, Paz put forward the magical experience of poetry of fine quality and great human values.His poems have a personal touch and a nature to talk to the inner profiles.

    32 person liked.
    		40 person did not like.
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Best Poem of Octavio Paz

No More Clichés

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 ...

Read the full of No More Clichés
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