In this anthology of Octavio Paz's works [A Draft of Shadows],… the impression we receive initially is that of a Mexican poet exposed for the first time to his European peers' influence and submerged in a rhetorical roil of surrealist images smacking more of virtuosity than honesty. The poems mirror Paz's experiences as his country's ambassador to India and his subsequent trips to England, France, and the United States. They are charged, even humorous, forcedly brilliant. But in them there is none of the drama faced by Paz on his return to Mexico. If at all, the joyful paganism of the Indian experience is interesting because it anticipates the essential humanism of the poet, staunch enemy of the city of stone, and melancholy lover of the passing garden of nature.

Clarity, to Paz's mind, rises when signs are erased and buildings fall; when, more and more secluded, you...