Analysis of Octavio Paz's "Two Bodies"
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ScribdTranslationsAnalysis of Octavio Paz's "Two Bodies"
Translated by
ScribdTranslationsText commentary - 2nd Baccalaureate IESLaSenda-DepartmentofSpanishLanguageandLiterature
Two bodies face to face
they are sometimes two waves
and the night is an ocean.
Two bodies facing each other
they are sometimes two stones
and the night desert.
Two bodies facing each other
they are sometimes roots
in the linked night.
Two bodies face to face
they are sometimes knives
and the lightning night.
Two bodies facing each other
they are two falling stars
in an empty sky.
Two bodies is a lyrical text written in the 1930s of the last century and whose author is Octavio Paz.
poet and essayist, therefore, of the contemporary period. Some of the traits that can be
At first glance, the evident predominance of the poetic and linguistic functions is observed.
second place, emotional in addition to the constant repetition of declarative sentences.
Although the constant use of copulative verbs makes the text have certain descriptive traits,
we see after a careful reading that it is not a conventional descriptive text although it does not fit either
exactly to no other specific textual typology.
Moving on to a more detailed analysis of the formal features, we can observe within the level
phonological the predominance of falling tonal patterns corresponding to the sentence modality
Declarative statement mentioned earlier. If we were to analyze the metric structure of the poem in this section
we would check that the absence of rhyme does not mean that the poem leaves more space for the
freedom that to the contemplated elaboration for the measurement of verses would show us a certain balance
between these two aspects when verifying that all the verses are heptasyllabic.
At the morphosyntactic level, we observe the almost total absence of adjectives, the result of which is the
tendency towards direct verse, without embellishments, through which the noun takes total prominence.
Those nouns that are the essence of the poem have a strong material component because noun
Through the noun, its concrete and common character can be verified, designating all of them as elements.
from nature, with the exception, of course, of the noun 'knife'. This weight of the elements
materials that give the text a clear physical component dismiss any reading
spiritual of the text unless this is taken to a symbolic plane removed from the most literal readings
evident from the text. In each stanza, the nouns acquire different connotations, in some
positive occasions and in others negative: "waves" and "roots" seem to suggest capacity for union between
Yes, in front of 'stones' and 'knives' that respectively show aridity and violence. Continuing with the
Analysis of the nouns we can observe the constant repetition of 'night' which serves to create
an environment of meeting that reinforces certain sexual connotations through the creation of this
nightly imagination.
The analysis of the verbs shows us the constant use of the present, with an atemporal character, giving
as a result an action outside of a specific time and, therefore, universalizable. The presence
the verb 'to be' (copulative and stative verbs) as the protagonist of each stanza makes the
The poem has a strong static quality that contrasts with the last one in which, in addition to the verb 'to be', it appears.
Commentary on text - 2nd Year BaccalaureateIESLaSenda-DepartmentofSpanishLanguageandLiterature
the verb 'to fall' which being a predicative and movement verb has a strong dynamic character.
The use of this verb after repeating the verb 'to be' 5 times turns this stanza into the
climax of the poem for breaking the monotony imposed by the aforementioned copulative verbs.
This climax ending is confirmed by the disappearance of the noun 'night' that served as
space to the "two bodies" to let through "empty sky" where precisely the only one appears
an adjective that has a clear negative message for being precisely the word that closes the poem and,
therefore, the one that remains in the reader's memory with more strength.
Adverbs are not abundant, although we can constantly find the adverbial phrase 'to
times" that alongside the verb "to be" shows the irregularity of the fact described. That is to say, all the
stanzas describe the changing nature of the 'bodies' due to that 'sometimes' that is truncated
at the end of the poem where that adverbial phrase does not appear implying that the two bodies
They can be different things depending on the moment, but in the end they are always two beings in free fall.
in the vacuum. The repetition of another adverbial phrase like "face to face" shows a
positioning of the protagonists providing a physical fact that corroborates our impression of the
importance of the physical in the poem.
Moving on to the aspects related to syntax, we can analyze the simple structure and
repetitive of the five stanzas that make up this poem. We can find well sentences
coordinated copulative compounds, or simple sentences that always end with a
circumstantial complement of place. The only exception is the last three verses where
we found a subordinate adjectival clause that complements a noun. The
the repetitive structure shows the use of parallelism that is broken with the last three verses for
achieve the necessary contrast to emphasize those verses. The use of copulative verbs and
Simple binary structures reinforce the feeling that everything revolves around 'two'
as a result of the sum or of the equivalence:
Body + body
Two bodies = two waves
ocean
In the semantic plane we will not stop since we have already pointed out fundamental aspects of
text like the abundance of words related to the semantic field of nature or the
evident predominance of the connotative.
On a pragmatic level, it should be noted that a text like this, despite having an accessible vocabulary to
readers of all characteristics, is clearly focused on a cultured reader due to the density
literary aspect of the work. This can only be the case if we associate a high sociolect with the author that in this
the poem uses an obviously cultured register as demonstrated by its command of poetic language. None
This feature of the text helps us analyze the spatial variety that could be useful to complete this.
section.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning the pleasant aftertaste of an intense and effective text that brings us closer to the
passionate relationships that build heavens and hells and that despite certain difficulties inherent to
Certain poetry can be said to manage to hook readers who are not used to the lyrical world.