This study analyses the use of colloquial language in the works of a number of modern Latin-American poets, Raúl González Tuñón, Nicanor Parra, Ernesto Cardenal, Rosario Castellanos, and Luisa Futoransky. The function of colloquial speech is examined as an integral part of the structural dynamics of the poetic texts selected for study. The works under discussion are viewed in the context of other strands of literary criticism and theory, including reception theory, poststructuralism, feminism, cultural poetics, and ideology. ROSA SARABIA is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Toronto. Spanish language