Point of View

Borges uses third person in much of his poetry to impart information, tell stories, and make observations about events, people, and the human condition. The use of third person also creates a kind of oracular distance form his topics, as if he had long pondered questions and decided what he thought before committing his conclusions to paper. To a degree, that is probably true, although Borges admits that writers never know exactly what they think, or how a piece of writing will turn out before they write it. Even so, the reader is there to discover what the poet has to say, and in that regard, Borges uses the distance of third person to great effect. He also writes in first person, often after he is well into a poem. The interjection of "I" into the narrative creates a sudden intimacy that can be disarming and...