Kukathas is a freelance writer and a student in the Ph.D. program in philosophy at the University of Washington, where she is specializing in social, political, and moral philosophy. In the following essay, she argues that in "Fable" Paz expresses what he takes to be the limitations of language by using poetry to move beyond its confines.

Upon initial reading, most people no doubt find Octavio Paz's "Fable" to be a curious poem. Many readers have difficulty discerning its meaning at first sight. The poem begins by presenting a series of strange visual images that appear not to hang together, and then moves on to offer equally odd abstract images. However, the beauty and challenge of his poem, like so many of Paz's works, is that it requires the imagination of the reader to be exercised in order for the poem to be fully appreciated and...