Poem: As One Listens To The Rain Essay, Research Paper

I am writing about Octavio Paz’s poem entitled, “As one Listens to the Rain,” I don’t know why I chose to write about this poem. I chose it mainly because I don’t know what it means but I like what it is saying. I guess you can interpret it in many ways. I asked a couple of my friends and they thought he was speaking to a woman, or speaking of life or even death. The part I like most about the poem are the contradictions used, for example in lines eleven through fourteen, “listen to me as one listens to the rain, / without listening, hear what I say / with eyes open inward, asleep / with all five senses awake,” I think the imagery of the poem is phenomenal, “your fingers of water dampen my forehead, / your fingers of flame burn my eyes, / your fingers of air open eyelids of time.” The constant repetition of the first line sets a certain tone to the poem. It’s almost like a yearning-wanting tone, to listen to what the speaker is saying because it’s important. I however don’t know what the speaker is saying I just like the syntax of the poem. The words chosen so carefully if he is speaking to a woman he doesn’t just come out and say it. He describes her using nature and what is around him; the rain, the lightning, the waves, the air, the wet asphalt. I also like this piece because you understand what the speaker is feeling without even knowing by his description. After reading this poem I thought about how you actually listen to the rain, as he describes in line two, “not attentive, not distracted,” how you just kind of listen. You aren’t listening for it, but you still hear it and you still know it’s there. Also in lines thirteen and fourteen when he writes, “asleep / with all five senses awake,” almost like in a different state of mind or while dreaming; the way the time is described, “the day is still leaving, / the night has yet to arrive.” I think all these aspects of the poem help draw out the poem because you can picture it in your head, you can pull certain moments out of your life when you’ve felt this way or can relate to a certain line.

As One Listens to the Rain

By Octavio Paz

Listen to me as one listens to the rain,

not attentive, not distracted,

light footsteps, thin drizzle,

water that is air, air that is time,

the day is still leaving,

the night has yet to arrive,

figurations of mist

at the turn of the corner,

figurations of time

at the bend in this pause,

listen to me as one listens to the rain,

without listening, hear what I say

with eyes open inward, asleep

with all five senses awake,

it’s raining, light footsteps, a murmur of syllables,

air and water, words with no weight:

what we are and are,

the days and years, this moment,

weightless time and heavy sorrow,

listen to me as one listens to the rain,

wet asphalt is shining,

steam rises and walks away,

night unfolds and looks at me,

you are you and your body of steam,

you and your face of night,

you and your hair, unhurried lightning,

you cross the street and enter my forehead,

footsteps of water across my eyes,

listen to me as one listens to the rain,

the asphalt’s shining, you cross the street,

it is the mist, wandering in the night,

it is the night, asleep in your bed,

it is the surge of waves in your breath,

your fingers of water dampen my forehead,

your fingers of flame burn my eyes,

your fingers of air open eyelids of time,

a spring of visions and resurrections,

listen to me as one listens to the rain,

the years go by, the moments return,

do you hear the footsteps in the next room?

not here, not there: you hear them

in another time that is now,

listen to the footsteps of time,

inventor of places with no weight, nowhere,

listen to the rain running over the terrace,

the night is now more night in the grove,

lightning has nestled among the leaves,

a restless garden adrift-go in,

your shadow covers this page.

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