San Ildefonso Nocturne (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Octavio Paz
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Children, Wives, Nature, Communication, Prostitution or prostitutes, 1930’s, Poverty or poor people, Mexico or Mexicans, Aztecs, Ants, Inventions or inventors, Advertising, Night, Tunnels, Windows
The Poem
“San Ildefonso Nocturne,” written in free verse, is divided into four stanzas of unequal length. Octavio Paz once again uses punctuation, a practice that he had abandoned in previous books. He also returns to the circular form he introduced so successfully in 1957 in Piedra de sol (Sun Stone, 1963). “San Ildefonso Nocturne” begins with the poet viewing through the window of his room a garish display of neon advertising in an unnamed city. Parts 2 and 3 move into the narrator’s past as a boy in Mexico City, and part 4 closes with the poet once...
[The entire page is 1539 words long]
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