My Life With the Wave

Imagery, in both poetry and prose, uses descriptive language to invoke certain sensory experiences. “My Life with the Wave” has an abundance of imagery: visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, and even organic.

The loving start of the relationship relies on images of lightness, which then transition into darker images as the relationship worsens. The wave begins in forms of “white vapor,” “the liquid stalk of a poplar,” “a fountain of white feathers,” (29-30), but she eventually spits “grey and greenish foam,” and her arms become strangling “knotty cords” (31-32). The same transition occurs within the auditory imagery, or the images that create a sound experience. The narrator and the wave communicate sweetly at first, with laughter, “murmurs,” “whispers”; for example, the narrator says the wave “sang in my ear, a little seashell” (30). When the wave grows restless, however, her sweet sounds become roars, moans, howls, and curses.

As this is a poem about love and intimacy, Paz relies heavily on tactile imagery—describing the way the narrator touches or feels something on his body. As with the sounds, the physical experiences at first are gentle and pleasurable: They narrator and the wave embrace, caress, kiss. The narrator describes “plunging into her waters,” where he “would be drenched to the socks and then, in the wink of an eye […] feel myself gently deposited on dry land, like a feather” (30). Later, this tenderness turns to violence when the wave nearly drowns him. The “happy light lashes” that used to wake him from sleep become lashes that incessantly whip him in anger (30).

Kinesthetic imagery describes the movement within the piece—in this case, the narrator’s and wave’s movements. The wave’s movements and animation are a critical component of her personification, as her actions are causally linked to her very human emotions. The wave first “leaps off” with the narrator, representative of the impulsive decision to abandon all she has ever known, despite having no understanding of what life in the city will entail. During the narrator’s incarceration, Paz writes in unemotional, short sentences, factual and to the point. The narrative here is constrained, just as the narrator is, and picks up again the moment he sits down on a train again. The love between the narrator and the wave is a “perpetual creation,” just as she is, constantly shifting forms. The movements they make are exciting and passionate but remain gentle and kind.

As she becomes lonely and restless, though, the wave’s movements become erratic, harsh, and destructive. The narrator frequently leaves, only creating further emotional distance between the two lovers. Eventually, the narrator can no longer bear the violence and destruction and leaves for a month, during which time the wave freezes, as does the couple’s passion—the wave is no longer capable of anything at all, and the narrator returns emotionless. The waiter chops her up, effectively destroying any human qualities she once had by turning her into a purely an inanimate object.

Finally, the poem makes use of organic imagery, which addresses internal sensations or emotions. The entire piece explores the turbulent (and toxic) qualities of an intensely emotional love affair. Upon realizing the wave has been in his apartment for the past year, the narrator says he feels “a pain in my chest, like the smack of a wave of surprise” (29). Paz goes on to utilize cosmic imagery and comparisons to convey the vastness of their love and how total and consuming it is. Since the story is told from the narrator’s first-person perspective, readers are exposed to his visceral jealousy, fear, humiliation, and hate once the relationship deteriorates. The wave’s painful experience, from the narrator’s point of view, manifests as isolation, nightmares, and destruction, but because he leaves, readers do not know how the wave felt in the final month before turning to ice.

“My Life with the Wave” is told entirely from the first-person perspective of the male narrator. This point of view provides readers with an authentic, honest portrayal of this character’s thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Revealing the narrator’s suffering encourages sympathy for the narrator and, to some extent, demonizes the wave; it might even provoke support for the narrator’s final callous decision. Though this is an accurate telling of the narrator’s story, readers know nothing of the wave’s perspective or experience, which would not necessarily be the same as the narrator’s.