Octavio Paz

Brotherhood

Brotherhood - meaning Summary

Small Self, Vast Cosmos

Paz’s short poem stages a speaker who contrasts human transience with an immense night. Looking up at stars prompts a sudden recognition that identity is not solitary: the self is described as being "written" and even currently being "spelled out" by someone or something beyond him. The poem links mortality, cosmic order, and language to suggest that selfhood emerges through external inscription and participation in a larger, communicating universe.

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I am a man: little do I last and the night is enormous. But I look up: The stars write. Unknowing I understand: I too am written, and at this very moment someone spells me out.

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