| Summary: | Pasado en Claro (A Draft of Shadows) was first published in 1975. This
long poem is the mental journey Paz embarks upon in pursuit of his own
personal paradise. This article focuses on three of important concepts Paz
explores in this poem and in his literary output as a whole: the scope of language,
memory and otherness. In the case of language, and its expression in poetry,
Paz’s most eloquent pages can be found in The Bow and the Lyre (1956), but
especially in The Monkey Grammarian (1970), the account of another journey,
through language and the acts of writing and reading. As a personal attempt at
regaining a mythical past, A Draft of Shadows affords a view of both the vast
narrative of Mexican history and Paz’s personal retelling of his own past. A
journey like this is only possible via the winding path of memory, its expression
in language, and an identity created as it follows its own trail.
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