Octavio Paz is the most celebrated Mexican poet of the twentieth century in the Post-World War II era, and a major figure in Latin-American literature. His outstanding accomplishments in the writing of both essays and poetry were acknowledged when in 1990, he was the first Mexican to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Paz also received the 1982 Miguel de Cervantes prize, the most prestigious literary award in Latin America.

Critics frequently comment that the works of Paz embody both a uniquely Mexican character and a "universal" quality that transcends national boundaries. Celebrated Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes is quoted in The Perpetual Present (1973; edited by Ivar Ivask) as stating that Paz was the "greatest living Mexican writer," a "great renovator of the Spanish language," and "great universal poet and essayist."

"My Life with the Wave" first appeared as a prose poem in Paz's 1951 collection lAguila o sol...