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http://universitypublishingonline.org/

The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature

Edited by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarra, Enrique Pupo-Walker

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521410359

Online ISBN: 9781139055291

Hardback ISBN: 9780521410359

Chapter

12 - Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s pp. 247-268

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521410359.014

Cambridge University Press

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[ 12 ]

Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s

Giovanni Pontiero

With the advent of Modernism, intellectual and cultural life in Brazilfound new impetus. The pioneers of the movement launched a pro

gr am me of reform and ren ewa l. Th ey defended artistic freedom and

encouraged innovation. Even sixty years later, the excitement they had

engendered had scarcely abated. Mo de rn is m wa s officially launched in

Februar y 1922 at Sao Paulo 's Te at ro Mun ici pa l with the particip ation of

writers, artists, and musicians. Three separate programmes included

lectures outlining the mov eme nt' s objective s, readings of prose and poetry

reflecting the new aesthetics, and musical recitals. The exhibition of cubistand expressionist works of art displayed in the theatre foyer aroused

hostile reactions before the public even entered the auditorium. Graca

Aranha (1868-1931), an established writer who achieved lasting famewith his best-selling novel Canad (1902) [Canaan], gav e the inaugu ral

lecture entitled " A em oc o esttica na arte moderna". Expressing unequi

vocal support for the radical changes proposed by younger artists

working in various media, Gra^a Aranha's provocative statements

enraged die-hard traditionalists and aroused some skepticism even

amo ngs t the Mod ern ists themselv es. Wi th suitably opulent rhetoric hewelcomed this "Maravi lhosa aurora!" ["Wondrous dawn"] with i ts

"pinturas extravagantes, esculturas absurdas, msica alucinada, poesia

area e desarticulada" {Espirito moderno, 1925) ["ext ravag ant paintings,

absurd sculptures, hallucinated music, vag ue, disarticulated po et ry "] .

The poet Meno tti del Picchia (1892-1989) exp ou nde d modernist ideals.

M ar io de Andrade (1893-1945), the movement's guiding spirit, readextracts from Paulicia desvairada [Hallucinated City] and his scornful

dismissal of bourgeois values provoked heckling and jeering, and when

Ro na ld de C ar va lh o (18931935) recited Os sapos [The Toads], parodying the literary establishment, the outraged audience became hysterical.

The po em had been written by Ma nu el Bandeira ( 1886-19 68), wh o

pledged his support from Rio de Janeiro and, although he was older than

Ml

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248

most of the movement's pioneers, his verses of Libertinagem (Rio de

Janei ro, 1930) [Deb auc her y] crys talliz ed to perfec tion the mo od and

objectives of Modernism.

Menotti del Picchia announced that Modernism would be militant andunc omp rom isi ng in its wa r against intransigent purists and outda ted

canons of taste. Arcadia and its myths belonged to the past. Modernists

w ould banish Parnassia n and pos t-r oma nti c influences, and create ne wvalues in art and literature attuned to the twentieth century. The editorialof the first issue of Klaxon (Sao Pau lo, M a y 1 5 , 1922) called on all

participants to pursue artistic forms that wou ld be "at ual " ["up-to-date"]

rather than simply " n o v o " ["n ew" ]. This was an age ofjazz, fast cars, the

Charleston, and motion pictures, in short, the era of Klaxon. The new

aesthetics wo ul d capt ure the eup hor ia of the times as indu stria lizat ion andtechnological progress began to transform urban Brazil.

The modernist programme had not been formulated overnight. Iso

lated factors had set the process of change in motion long before

intellectuals and artists started to exchange ideas and clarify their aims.

The poet, playwright, and novelist, Oswald de Andrade (Jos Oswald de

Sousa An dra de; 1890-19 54) had witnessed the impact of Mari nett i 's

Futu rism , laun che d in Eur ope in 1909, and he establ ished con tac t wit h

avant-garde poets in Paris who had abandoned traditional concepts of

poe try in fav our of free verse and internal har mo ny . Upon returning toBrazil in 191 2, he soon beg an to pub lish his o w n experi men ts wi th freeverse, which predictably scandalized Parnassians and Symbolists alikeand aro used their hostility. Some Brazilian Mod ern ist s subsequently

argued that Marinetti's influence had been overstated, but the Italian

poet 's Manifesto tecnico, published in Milan, in May 1912, undoubtedly

provided them with most of their key images and themes - electric light,

ventilators, aeroplanes, workers' rights, engines, factory chimneys, dyna

mos, and me cha nic s - even if they stopped shor t of the Italian poet 's stated

convict ion that mode rn art should emb od y "vio len ce, cruelty and injust ice" (futurist manifesto, published in Le Figaro, February 20, 1909).

Luis de Monta lvor (1891-1947) and Ron ald de Carv alh o (1893-1935)launched a short-lived magazine Orpbeu. The only two numbers to

appear were published in March and June 1915. The main objective of

Orpbeu was to bring the achievements of the European Avant-Garde to

the attention of the Braz ilia n intelligentsia and to pro vid e a pla tfo rm for

young writers and artists wit h new ideas. By 19 17 , the mov eme nt' spioneers, Os wa ld and Ma ri o de And rad e, were actively collabora ting in

their determination to create a more favorable climate for experimentation in every sphere of creat ive art. Poli tical events and social cha nge s at

hom e and abroa d convi nced them that the moment had come to publicize

their aims. Th er e we re enough frustrated write rs and artists living and




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working in Sao Pau lo by 1920 to supp ort their pro gr am me . Th e wor ke rs '

strikes in the city had encouraged other minority groups to voice their

grievances, and the forthcoming celebrations to mark the centennial of

Brazilian Independence (September 1822) seemed an opportune date tolaunch a Mode rni st manifesto.

T he heroic phase of Brazilian Modernismo [Modernism] was aggres

sive and strident. The movement's pioneers stressed the need to penetrate

the spirit of contemporary life rather than simply portray its externals.

They expressed their contempt for earlier literary movements and

resented Europ ean influences, especial ly those import ed from Port ugal

and France. Henceforth , Brazilian artists would export rather than import

ideas. The art they envisaged would be multifaceted and even arbitrary:

"pol imorfo, onipresente, inquieto, comico, irritante, contraditorio, inve-jado, insultado, feliz" (Klaxon) ["polymorphous, omnipresent, restless,

comic, irritable, contradictory, envied, reviled, joyful"] . Writers and

poets would forge a new language that would merge literary and

colloquial forms with the utmost freedom and individuality. Stereotyped

images of Brazil and Brazilians would disappear as artists began to re

assess the cou ntr y's history and tradit ions, its ethnic comp lexi ty, and the

impact of accelerating immigration. Mario de Andrade paid homage to

his beloved Sao Paulo, the nerve cell of Brazi l:

Sao Paulo! comocao de minha vida . . .

(Pauliceia desvairada, "Inspiracao," l.i)

[Sao Paulo! tumult of my life . . .]

Art and artists could only hope to survive by adapting to an inevitable

process of change. The pioneers of Modernism found beauty and

excitement in this new age of machines and technology. Only later would

they begin to question and fear the more negative aspects of progress.

Initially, the provocative slogans of the Modernists were more readily

digested than the aesthetics they we re trying to define. Os wa l d de Andr ad escandalized his critics with a colorful portrait of his pers onal "Fut uris t

poet," while the poet in question, Mario de Andrade, systematically

demo lish ed the poets revered by prev ious gener ation s - Ra im un do

Correia (1859-1911), Alberto de Oliveira (1857-1937), and O la vo Bilac

(1865-1918) - in a series of analytical essays entitled: "Mestres do

pa ss ad o" . On ly the Symbolis ts cou ld cla im to hav e influenced the ne w

poetry. In another explanatory essay, A escrava que ndo e Isaura, M ar i o

de Andrade insisted that Modernist poets were not concerned with

Nature and reality but with their own individual responses to the worldaround them.

T he influence of Marinetti 's Futurism was played down even further.

Any inspiration from Europe, the Modernists argued, had been much




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more diffuse: Verhaeren's Villes tentaculaires, the cubist experiments of

Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Andre Salmon, Blaise Cendrars, and JeanCocteau , the Dadaism of Tzara, Francis Picabia, and Paul Derme. This

eclecticism is apparent in the "poetic polyphony" exploited by Mario deAndrade in the verses of Faulicia desvairada. Echoes of the European

Avant -Garde are also present in Oswald de Andrade's improvised lyrics

and in the zany descriptions of Guilherme de Almeida (1890-1969).

O sw a ld de Andrade invents verbs to create his own whimsical world in" B e n g a l " (in Poesas reunidas [1966]):

O piano fox trotadomingaliza

(lines 6-7)

[The piano fox-trots

Sundayizes]

and Alm eid a creates sonor ous rhythms in his ono mata poe ic "S a mb a" (in

Poesa varia [1947]):

estronda / rebenta / retumba / ribomba

(lines 9-12)

[booming / rolling / roaring / rumbling]

Modernism with its jesting and polemics soon caught the public imagina

tion. The Sao Paulo poets joined forces with visual artists who shared this

desire for reform and renewal: the painters Anita Malfatti, Di Cavalcanti,

Tarsila do Amaral, and John Gr az , the sculpto rs Vt or Brecheret and W .

Haeberg, and the architects Antonio Moya and George Przirembel.

Contacts were also established with artists and writers resident in Rio

de Janeiro wh o shared the move men t's ideals. Th e latter met in book

shops and cafs whe re they avid ly discussed their wo rk , exc ha nged the

latest novelties from Europe, and read their poems to each other. In Rio de

Janeiro, Renato Almeida (1895-1981), Ronald de Carvalho, SergioBua rqu e de Ho la nd a (19021982), and Ma nu el Bandei ra soon bec ame

familiar faces at these lively gatherings. Ronald de Carvalho's Epigramasirnicos e sentimentais (1922) [Ironic and Sentimental Epigrams] also

celebra ted "ha ppin ess and free dom," and Bande ira devised his ow n

bacchanalian pleasures in the poems of Carnaval (1919) [Carnival].

The poets united under the banner of Modernism soon began to define

their own positions. Heated debate led to conflicts and several defections

within their ranks. Os wa ld de And rad e, the most dynamic and outs poke n

of the movement's pioneers, set out his own ideals in Manifesto da poesia

pau-hrasil published in the Correio da Manha on Ma rc h 18 , 1924. He

wan ted a poet ry ca pab le of por tra yin g the real Brazi l, a lyricism in the

flowering, "gi l e candida. C o mo urna crianza" ["agile and innocent. As




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a child" ] and total ly devoi d of artifice; " A Poesia para os poet as. Alegr ia

dos que nao sabem e de sc ob re m" ["Poetry for poets . T he happiness of

those wh o prefer discovering to kn ow in g" ]. Th e modern poet envisaged

by Os wa ld de An dr ad e wou ld shun the past and strive for " A sintese . . . Oequilib rio . . . A inven cao . . . Um a nova pers pec tiv a" ["Synthesis . . .

Equilibrium . . . Invention . . . A new persp ectiv e"], thus ensuring the

utmost individuality. He himself led the way with taut, epigrammatic

poe ms whic h captur ed the national scene, life on the sugar plant ation s,

provi ncia l lan dmar ks, the Brazil ian Car niv al , and the pulsati ng rhyth ms

of urban life. Restless and versatile, Oswald de Andrade's moods

fluctuate bet ween outr ageous satire and quiet lyricism, bet ween collo

quial par ody and Impressionist description :

La fora o luar continuaE o trem divide o Brasil

Como num meridiano.

("Noturno," Poesias reunidas [1945])

[Outside the moonlight persists

And the train divides Brazil

Like a meridian.]

("Nocturne")

He exercised a prof ound influence over his cont empo rar ies . Menot ti

del Picchia, Guilherme de Almeida, Sergio Milliet (1898-1966), Ribeiro

Cou to (1898- 1963), and Ron al d de Ca rv al ho all shared O sw a ld de

Andrade's interest in discovering the spiritual core ofBrazil. They probed

its folklo re and customs and evok ed Braz il's historical landm arks : Ou r o

Preto, Co ng on ha s do Ca mp o, Bahi a, Reci fe, Sahara . Th ey tried to define

the Brazilian character, its mestizo roots and unmistakable colloquial

isms. These traits are embodied in Bandeira's personal "Evocacao do

Recife," in which he defends "a lingua errada do povo / lingua certa do

p o v o " (lines 67-8 ) ["the ung rammati ca l l ang uag e of the peo ple / the

authentic language of the people"].

Brazil and Braz ili ans beco me the burn ing ques tion in the modernis t

manifestos launched by dissident groups. Terra Roxa e outras terras,

published in Sao Paulo in January 1926, pro mis ed a new phase of literary

activity which would entertain as well as instruct with a wide range of

prose and poetry faithful to the so-called "espirito moderno" ["modern

spirit"]. Ronald de Carvalho spoke for all Modernists when he urged:

"Cr i a o teu ritmo e criaras o mu nd o" ["Create y our rhythm and you will

create the wo rl d" ]. In another expl osiv e editorial in the Revista de

Antropofagia, launched in Sao Paulo on M a y 1,192 8, Os wa l d de An dra de

extolled Primitivi sm. Ce nsur ing the vices of wh at passes for a civili zed,

Chris tian s ociety, he argued " O espirito recusa-se a conceber o espirito




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sem co r po" [ "The spirit refuses to conc eive the spirit with ou t its body"] ,

and he defended spo ntaneous instinct as the one cohesi ve fact or in any

assessment o f Brazil 's social, econ omic , and cultural e volut ion. Th e

anthropophagists were out to celebrate life. They rejected the oppressivetheories of Freud and advoc ate d a reality "s em com pl ex os , sem lou cur a,

sem prosti tuicoes " ("Manifesto antrop fago ," Revista de Antropofagia,

i) ["without co mplexe s, withou t madness, withou t prosti tutions"].These sentiments are expressed somewhat more coherently in the last

important mode rnist manifes to of the 1920s, Manifesto do Verde-

amarelismo ou de Escola da Anta (May, 1929). The intellectuals and poetsw h o united under this banner included Menotti del Picchia, CassianoRicardo (1895-1974), Rau l Bopp (1898-1984), Plnio Salga do (189 5-

1975), and Cndido Mota Filho (18971977). Like the anthro pophag ists,they preached a new spirit of nationalism rooted in Brazil's primitive

civilizations; an age dominated by the Tupi Indians and joyfully free of allreligious precepts and philosophical theories; a race notable for its

spontaneity as opposed to arid intellectualism. The Verdeamarelistas

opposed all rhetoric, both verbal and conceptual, and urged creative

artists to be creative without any discussion.

The manifestos had debated every aspect of Brazilian culture. It was

now time for Brazilian artists and poets to assert their individuality with

confidence. The verses of Menotti del Picchia's Repblica dos Estados doBrasil (1928), Rau l Bop p's Cobra Norato (1931), and Cassiano Ricardo's

Borroes de verde e amarelo (1926), all dr ew inspiration from "pri mit ive

telluric forces." They interpreted the myths of Am az on ia , and re-w ork ed

pop ula r legends of Afri can and Indian origi n. Mys te ri ous spirits and

deities are invo ked in these poem s - T an go lo mo ng o, Mula- de-Pa dre, and

Pai-da-Mata, the goddesses Iai and Janaina often in a language as

impenetrable as the strange rituals they describe. Cassiano Ricardo

speaks for all the anth ropo pha gist s when he speaks of an earthly parad ise:

Brasil cheio de gracaBrasil cheio de pssarosBrasil cheio de luz

("Martim Cerer")

[Brazil full of graceBrazil full of birdsBrazil full of light]

This exp lor ati on of primit ive Brazil inevi tably led to ren ewe d interest

in the various customs and traditions throughout different regions. InMin as Gerais in central Brazil, Car los Dr um mo nd de And rad e (1 902 -

1987) launched A Revista in mid 1925 wi th other yo un g poets wh o valuedtheir provincial roots. Dru mm on d' s first bo ok of poe ms, Alguma poesia




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(1930), captu res the atmo sphe re an d pace of pro vin cia l life in "Igreja,"

"Sesta," and "Romaria," poems noteworthy for their colloquialism and

wry observations in keeping with the mineiro temperament. In Rio de

Janeir o, a spiritually exil ed Bande ira por tra yed and interpreted thePernambuco of his childhood in the verses of Libertinagem. Poets and

artists living in the northeast agreed wi th the Pe rna mbu can his torian and

sociologist Gilberto Freyre (19001987) that provincial values would

outlive the materialism of the industrialized cities in the south. The

"cr eat ive so ul " of Braz il wa s firmly entrenc hed in remo te to wn s and

settlements untouched by progress. Provincial life inspired the popular

verses of Asc ens o Ferreira (189 5-19 65), a compro mis e bet ween speech

and song whi ch Bandeira described as "genu ine northeastern rhapsodies

which faithfully reflect the soul, one moment playful, the next nostalgic,of the inhabitants of the sugar pla ntat ions " ("Ap rese ntac ao da poesia

brasileira" in Ensaios literdrios). D ra wi ng on the folk lore of the peo ple , he

conjured up the Brazil ian inter ior wi th its: "mocambos" "mangues"

"moleques" "mulatos" "cajueiros" "mangabas" and "caiporas"

["shacks," "mangr oves ," "blac k urchins," "mulat tos," "cash ew trees,"

"m an ga ba fruits," and " jungl e sprites" ]. In the manner of Bo pp , Ferreira

uses the rhyth ms of Afr o-B raz ili an folk lore to ev oke a wo rl d of secret

rites:

Sertao! - Jatoba!Sertao! - Cabrobo!

- Cabrobo!

- Ouricuri!

- Exu!

- Exu!

("Sertao," Poesias completas [1971])

In a quiet er ve in, Jo aq ui m C ardozo (18971978) also conjured u p the

unmi sta kab le atmosp her e of the northeaster n p rovi nces in Imagens do

nordeste. His lyrical evocations of the old cities of Olinda and Recife

pro be the reg ion' s col onia l past and exp lor e tranquil settings unc han ged

by time and progress.

Southern Brazilia ns, too , had their ow n unmist akabl e wo rl d - the

pampas. The poets associated with the Revista Verde, launched at

Cataguazes in Septe mber 192 7, wer e also an xio us to "abras ilei rar o

Brasi l" ["brazilianize Brazil"] . Gu il he rm o Ces ar (b. 1908), Enriqu e de

Resende (1899-1973), Rosario Fusco (19101977), Francisco Peixoto (b.

1909), and As ca ni o Lo pes (1906-1929 ) used their poetry to port ray the

gaucho's harsh existence and inner solitude. The communities they

describe are alm ost feudal , their lives dom ina ted by the myster ious force s

of Nature, their physical resilience matched by a defiant stoicism. The




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dominant note is one of human solidarity: the aphorisms have all the

solem nity of messianic prophes ies. T he se qualities are present in the early

verses of Au gu st o Me ye r (1903-1970) and T as so da Silveira (1895- 1968),

especially in the latter's Alegoras do bomem novo (1926), whi ch comb inelocal colloq uialis ms wit h archaic Portuguese exp ressions.

The mid 1930s saw a gradual change of mood and expression in

Brazilian poetry. A number of poets began to express dissatisfaction with

the histrionics and rabid nationalism of some of their contemporaries.

Lesser talents were composing free verse under the banner of Modernism

wit hou t any real grasp of the movem ent 's objectives. Th e entire group of

Vesta poets urged a return to a poetry of introspection dealing with

univers al them es. Poe ts like Ta ss o da Silveira, Ad el in o Ma ga lh e s (1887

1969), And rad e Mu ri cy (1895-198 4), and Mu ri lo Ara ujo (1894-1980)voiced their support for the manifesto, but its aims were most effectively

illustrated by poets who were independently moving in the same direc

tion: for example, Bandeira and Drummond de Andrade, who were

disciplined craftsmen f rom the outset. Au gu st o Frede rico Schm idt (19 06 -

1965) spoke for the entire Festa group when he declared:

Nao quero mais o Brasil

Nao quero mais geografa

nem pitoresco.

("Poema," Poesas escolhdas [1946])

[I no longer want Brazil

I no longer want geography

however picturesque.]

Schmidt's spiritual disquiet and brooding meditations about life and

death in the verses of Canto da noite (1934) [Night Song] were to find

more vigorous expression in the poetry of Jorge de Lima (1895-1953),

especially in A tnica inconstil (1938) and in the Surrealist visions of A

poesia em pnico by Mur ilo Mendes (1901-1975), whi ch wa s published inthe same year as Schmidt's verses. Meanwhile women poets like Cecilia

Meireles (1901- 1964) and He nriquet a Lisb oa (1904-1985) expressed the

same existential preoccupations with greater simplicity and restraint.

Re mar ka ble for their control and musicality, Lis boa 's intimate lyrics wer e

the fruit of a rigorous process of reduction to essentials. Sentiment

overr ules sentimentality w he n she confides: " A vida me eng anh ou mas foi

sabia na sua essncia" ("Humildade" in Lrica [1958]) ["Life betrayed me

but was essentially wise"] .

This inner tranquil lity is even more pr ono unc ed in the lyrical verse ofMeireles, whose key collections - Viagem (1939), Vaga msica (1942),

Mar absoluto (1945), and Retrato natural (1949), we re to cons olid ate her

reput atio n as the greatest wo ma n poet in the Portu guese langu age . Lik e




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most of her con tem pora rie s in the imme diat e post mode rni st phase ,

Meireles pays tribute to earlier generations of Portuguese and Brazilian

poets, including all the great names of Parnassianism and Symbolism

w h o m militant Modernists had arbitrarily dismissed. Independent of anyspecific school or program, this prolific and versatile poet composed

verses in traditional meters and in free verse with equal assurance. In his

Ensaios literdrios, Bandeira defined her poetry as "timeless, diaphanous

and crys tal lin e," wi th its distilled emot ion s and subtle inter roga tions . He r

lyricism is comparable with that of Bandeira himself: utter simplicity

combined with depth and an almost unbearable pathos:

Eu canto porque o instante existe

e a minha vida esta completa.

Nao sou alegre nem sou triste:sou poeta.

("Motivo," Obra poetica [1958])

[I sing because the instant exists

and my life is complete .

I am neither happy nor sad:

I am a poet.]

Stark poems of self-analysis are common to all the major Brazilian

poe ts of the 1930s and 1940s. The ex uber an ce and op timis m of the earlyMod er nis ts subsided into quiet reflection occ asi ona lly tinged wi th

hum our . In Ri o Gr an de do Sul, Ma ri o Qu in tana (b. 1906) forged "Urn

poema sem outra angiistia que a sua misteriosa condicao de poema" ["A

poem without any anguish other than its mysterious condition of being a

poe m"] , while Dantas Mota (1913-1974) mourned the decline of rural

settlements in his native Min as Ger ais with lyric poe ms chara cter ized by

saudade and elegiac evo ca tio ns. Th e themes are more varied in urban

poets like Dante M il an o (b. 1899) and Vi nic ius de Mo ra es (1913-1980).

T he latter's "Saudade de Manuel Bandeira" in Foemas, sonetos e baladas

(1946) expresses his debt to Bandeira, "o poeta liicido . . . ascetico . . .

as pe ro " ["the lucid . . . ascetic . . . austere po et "] , wh os e mora l integrity,

erudition, and discipline made him the ideal confidant and mentor for so

many younger poets.

Bandei ra's lasting influence was also ac kno wle dge d by Carlo s Dr um-

mond de Andrade in his "Ode no cinquentenario do poeta brasileiro."

The salient qualities attributed to Bandeira in this poem: "violenta

ternura . . . infinita policia . . . gravidade simples . . . sofrimento seco"

["violent tenderness . . . infinite re fi ne me nt .. . simple sobriety . . . pa rchedsuffering"] set the seeds of Drummond's own perceptive account of

human alienation. Drummond steadily progressed from the whimsical

gaucherie of "Poema de sete faces" and " A bal ada do amo r atraves das




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ed ad es " to the disquieting sentiments of "C on gr es so Internacion al do

M e d o " as the shadows of war and repression started to loom in the late

1930s. A quest for modernity was gradually replaced by a need for

eternity, and the edgy, restless rhythms of his early poetry graduallyyielded to the serene lyricism of Claro enigma (1951).

Dr um mo nd 's erudition, his pow er s of self-appraisal and his constant

striving for new inventions and refinements in terms of language and

meaning, and his clear precepts about the craft and function of poetry

soon singled him out as the most accomplished Brazilian poet of modern

times. The enemy of mystification, he warned his fellow poets:

Nao dramatizes, nao invoques,

nao indagues. Nao percas tempo em mentir.

Nao forces o poema a desprender-se do limbo.

Nao colhas no chao o poema que se perdeu.

Nao adules o poema. Aceita-o

como ele aceitara sua forma definitiva e concentrada

no espaco.

("Procura da poesia," Nova reuniao)

[Don't dramatize, don't invoke,

don't probe. Waste no time telling lies.

Don't force the poem to escape from limbo.

Do n' t retrieve the poem lying on the floor.

Don't flatter the poem. Just accept it

as it accepts its final, concentrated form

in space.]

Deep convictions shape the very structure of Dru mmond 's poems.

Nagging uncertainties and relentless interrogations give substance and

sharpness to his observations of the world around him. A poet for other

poets and for ordinary men, Drummond even at his most pessimistic

inspires confidence and transfo rms his very nega tions into someth ing

poetically positive. His influence is perceptible in the work of nearly every

poet ass ociated wi th the Gene rat ion o f 1945, a prod ucti ve crop of

heterogeneous poets who retained their individuality while pursuing

common objectives.

The Gen era tio n of 1945 unan imous ly ack now le dg ed the need to

express the aspirations and concerns of a world much altered by a second

World War: Bueno de Rivera (b. 1911) described the poet of his time:

periscopio raro

nas lagoas turvas

("A volta dos megaterios," Mundo submerso [1944])




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57

[a rare periscope

in turbid waters]

A similar function is performed by Tiago de Melo (b. 1926) in the role of

poet-catalyst:

Unindo os extremos da vida

e mostrando a verdade

corno urna fruta aberta.

("A fruta aberta," A lenda da rosa [1956])

[Uniting the extremes of life

and showing the truth

like an open fruit.]

T he critical essays of the period stressed the need for discipline andresearch. Fernando Ferreira de Loanda (b. 1924), in collaboration with

Ledo Ivo (b. 1924) and Darcy Damasceno (b. 1922), launched the first

number of the Revista Orpheu (Spring 1947), a journal offering a wide

range of new poems both traditional and exper imenta l and inv ariabl y

characterized by clarity, professionalism, and a vigilant craftsmanship,

which banished any suggestion of facile improvisation. Hermeticism was

rejected by most of these poets in favour of a poetic diction that would

appeal to a wider public, an important factor ifartists and writers were to

identify with the political and social issues of the day. Mauro Mota( 1 9 1 1 -

1984), for example, became much admired for his intimate descriptions of

ordina ry things and people, wh ic h, alth ough highly perso nal, are never

obscure. He transforms an umbrella into "urna grande rosa negra, que se

abre sobre mim na chuva" ["a huge black rose that opens above me in the

rain"] and interprets the bar kin g of a do g as "urn lat ido ancestr al " ["an

ancestral wail"] capable of unleashing "a fome do tempo" ["the hunger of

t ime"] .

This "grave oficio de poeta" ["serious profession of being a poet"] is

upheld by practiced theoreticians like Pricles Eugenio da Silva Ramos (b.1919) and Domingos Carvalho da Silva (b. 1915). The latter opposes any

romantic vision of the poet at work:

Meu verso a minha vida prtica,

salrio e suor do meu rosto

("O Poeta," Poemas escolhidos [1956])

[My verse is my practical life,

my wages and the sweat of my brow.]

Geir Campos (b. 1924), Paulo Mendes Campos (b. 1922), Stella Leonardo s

(b. 1923), and Jos Paulo Moreira da Fonseca (b. 1922) are all conscious

"artesos da palavra" ["artisans of the word"]. They share a preference

fo r adjectives such as " l o g i c o , " "lcido," "sereno," "claro," "essencial"




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258

[" logical ," "lucid," "serene," "clear," "essential"]. Their common goalis neatly phrased by Moreira da Fonseca:

Quando tudo te parece perdido

escuta a vida.

("Renascimento," Poesias [1949])

[When all seems lost

listen to life.]

Hu ma n malaise is probed wit h a clinical eye. Bue no de Rivera unravels: "a

vida noturna do espirito" ["the nocturnal life of the spirit"], whileMoreira da Fonseca attempts to reconstruct the pieces of his "espelho

quebrado em 68 fragmentos, tentando espelhar um rosto desolado"

["mirror shattered into 68 fragments, trying to mirror a desolate face"] .There are echoes of Drummond's battle with the powers of Good and

Evil ("Poema de purificao") in works such as Mapa azul da infncia by

Marcos Konder Reis (b. 1922), in Caminbos de Belm (1962) by AfonsoFlix de Sousa (b. 1925), and in Canto para as transformaes do homem(1964) by M oa c y r Flix (b. 1926) in wh ic h "to da s as luas so tristes e feremdiariam ente o ho me m e seu ab ra o " ["all the moo ns are sad and daily

wound man and his embrace"]. Ledo Ivo touches upon the central

paradox of man's existence when he wryly observes:

O universo o sonho de Deuse Deus o sonho dos homens.

("O sonho," \]ma lira dos vinte anos [1962])

[The universe is the dream of God

and God is the dream of men.]

The spiritual corrosion of the times often creates a sense of personal

guilt in these poets. Paulo Mendes Campos confides:

. . . meus pais no souberam impedir

Que o sorriso se mudasse em zombariaE um coraao em coisa fria.("Sentimento de Tempo," Poemas [1979])

[. . . my parents were unable to prevent

That my smile should turn to scorn

My ardent heart into something cold.]

In contrast, Darcy Damasceno impartially defines the formidable chal

lenge confronting the poets of his generation:

Entre a loucura e a infnciaPlantar o humano e o trgico

aos pes da eternidade .

("Poema," Poemas [1946])




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59

[Between madness and infancy

T o plant the human and tragic

At the feet of eternity.]

Joao Cabral de Melo Neto (b. 1920) has been rightly acclaimed as the

most creative and individual poet to have emerged from the Generation of

1945. Wh il e many of his cont emp ora rie s s ho we d signs of returning to

traditional themes and techniques, he experimented further in his pursuit

of mathematical precision. The order and permanence Cabral invokes in

Pedra do sono (1942), and O engenheiro (1945), became the hallmark of

his own poetics:

Procura a ordem

que ves na pedra:

nada se gasta

mas permanece.

("Pequena ode mineral," Poemas reunidos [1945])

[Pursue the order

you observe in the stone:

nothing is lost

yet it endures.]

In Psicologia da composiqao (1947), he compares the composing of

poetry to "deli rio, transe, tu mul to " ["delirium, trance and tum ult "]. Afierce struggle wit h wo rd s and conce pts is inevitable - "te nta ndo / salvar

da morte os monstros / germinados em seu tinteiro" ["trying / to rescue

from death the monsters / germin ated in his in kw el l" ] - before the po et

ultimately achieves stark simplicity. Powerful emotions are rigorously

controlled. Complex issues are conveyed by means of essentialized,

sharply defined images: stone, sun, tree, desert. Cabral's poetic diction is

uncompromisingly austere:

O engenheiro sonha coisas claras:

o engenheiro pensa o mundo justo,

mundo que nenhum veu encobre.

("O engenheiro")

[The engineer dreams oftransparent things:

the engineer believes the wor ld to be sound,

a world no veil conceals.]

Subseq uent bo ok s of poetr y betray a deepe ning conc ern wit h the harsh

social conditions in his native Pernambuco. The drama of the Brazilian

interior or sertdo and the plight of the sertanejos stricken by dro ugh t and

famine is narrated without emphasis or contrivance in poems like




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260

"Paisagem do capibaribe" and "Congresso no poligono das secas," and,

most memorably of all, in "Morte e vida severina" (1956), a dramaticpoem based on a traditional nativity play. His later poems reveal even

greater concentration and precision. In Urna faca so lmina (1955) the keyimages "urna baia enterrada no cor po . . . um re lg io pu lsando em sua

gaiola . . . urna faca intima . . . lmina c ru el " ["a bulle t buri ed in the b od y. . . a wa tc h pul sat ing in its cage . . . an intima te knife . . . cruel bl ade" ]

constitute the living mechanism which gives Cabrai de M e l o Neto ' spoetry its muscular agility. Like Drummond before him, Cabrai openedup exciting new paths for others to fol low. Cab ral 's poetry madeconsi dera ble impa ct thr oug hou t the 1960s and 1970s, and his influenceextended beyond Brazil to Portugal and Spain. His innovations would be

respected even by the Concrete poets who were generally critical, if notentirely hostile, in their appraisal of the Generation of 1945.

Con cre te poetry w as launch ed in Sao Pau lo in 1952 wh en DcioPignatari (b. 1927), Augusto de Campos (b. 1931), and Haroldo de

Campos (b. 1929) published the first issue of Noigandres with some

startling innovations - non-figurative poems with geometric features. The

enigmatic title Noigandres had been culled from the Prov enc al trou ba

dour Arnaut Daniel and used by Pound in his Cantos. The Concrete poets

w ould replace conventional "discursive" syntax with ideograms. Subjec

tive expr essio n wo ul d be com e objecti ve and aim for the imme diatecommunication achieved by newspaper headlines or strip cartoons. The

Concrete poem would be released from a strictly literary context and

bec ome integrated w ith other art forms - music, pain ting, architec ture,

and the graphic arts in general.

By 1955? Concretismo [Concretismi had gained momentum. Noi

gandres 2 appeared and Concrete poets read and displayed their spatial

poems at a music festival held at Sao Paulo's Teatro de Arena. The

mov em en t's pioneers had also established close links wit h expe rime nta l

artists and poets in Europe, such as Eugen Gomringer in Germany, whoseConstellations har mon ize d wit h the aesthetics of the Conc reti sts.

The fol lowing year, the first national exhibition of Concrete Art wasorganized at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo. Ronaldo Azeredo

(b. 1937), Ferreira Gul lar (b. 1930), and Wl ad em ir Di as Pino (b. 1927)displ ayed their poems alongside the wo rk of avan t-ga rde painters and

sculptors. Noigandres 3 was published to coincide with the exhibition. Its

success encouraged the promoters to transfer the exhibition to Rio de

Janeiro, where it was well attended and enthusiastical ly revie wed in the

literary supplement of the ]ornai do Brasil. The supplement also published the poems ofJos Lino Grunewald (b. 1931), Reinaldo Jardim (b.

1926), and the veteran poet Pedro Xisto (b. 1901), as examples of the latestgraphic techniques.




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ra terra terrat erra ter

rate rra terrater ra ter

raterr a ter

raterra ter

261

Noigandres 3 put Concrete poetry into perspective. Influences could be

traced back to the early experiments of the Brazilian symbolist poet

Jo aquim de Sousa And ra de (18331902), to the moderni st inventions of

Oswald de Andrade, and more recently to the sparse verses ofJoao Cabralde Melo Neto. The main influences from abroad were Mallarme's Un

coup de des, Apollinaire's Calligrammes, Pound's Cantos, the minimalist

techniques of e. e. cummings, and Joyce's word montages. Carrying these

experiments further, the Concrete poets explored the artistic potential of

"words in space," either in isolation or in association, either in black and

white or in colour. With the publication of Noigandres 4 in 1958,

Concrete poets began to diversify their techniques by composing "code-

poems," "semiotic poems," or "poems without words." Augusto de

Campos experimented with ideograms and "popcretas," which departedfrom any conv enti onal use of synt ax; Ha ro ld o de Ca mp os oblitera ted the

frontiers between prose and poetry and broadened the function of

semantics. The printed word became something mobile and magnetic,

subject to unexpected vibrations and sudden metamorphoses. Poems

were constructed like mantras or phonic talismans, and important links

were established with the musical experiments of composers like Boulez,

Stockhausen, Berio, and Ponge.

By 1959, the poets ass ociated wit h Noigandres could justly claim to be

at the forefront of an international movement. That same year, their workwas shown and debated at a Concrete exhibition in Stuttgart, organized

by Max Bense, while in Munich the arts journal Nota devoted a special

issue to the Brazilian Avant-Garde. The following year the mo vemen t's

achie vement s were publici zed even further afield wit h a large-scale

exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in T o k y o .

A new anthology of poetry and criticism, Invenqao (1962-1968), edited

by Decio Pignatari, and his Teoria da poesia concreta (1956) published in

collab oration with Augus to and Ha rol do de Ca mp os , outlined the

movement's role in changing contemporary attitudes to poetry. Theword-object had been stripped to bare essentials. Enigmas had been

replaced by verbal cho reo gra phy, and word s, wh ol e or fragment ed, wer e

now seen as germ-syllables exploding and expanding on the blank page as

they progressed toward concreteness. The permutations on these basic

principles seemed infinite. They ranged from Decio Pignatari 's meta-

poema or "p oe m about a po em ," constructed from the wo rd "T er ra ":




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araterra ter

raraterra te

rraraterra t

erraraterrat er ra ra t e rra

to Jos Lino Grunewald's digital poem " C i n c o " :

i

22

333

4444c i n c o

Th e mov em ent 's critics depl ored the absence of any emo tional textur ein these experiments but there are clear undertones o f prur ienc e and satire

respectively in the fol lowing "mini-poems" by Dcio Pignatari:

abrir as portas

abrir as pernas

cobrir as corpos

[to open doors

to open legs

to cover bodies]

= a patria a familia

( com televiso )amplificada

= [the fatherland is the family

( with television )amplified]

Predictably, divisions and defections soon occurred within the ranks of

Con cre tis m and, by the 1960s, critics wer e already discussing Post-

Concrete aesthetics. New theories about the nature and function of poetry

were aired and new manifestos launched. The most radical of these was

Poesia Praxis [Praxis Poetry] launched by Mario Chamie (b. 1933) in

Lavra Lavra (1962). The Praxist poet would replace the palavra-coisa[word-object] of Concretism with the pal avr-energia [word-energy], the

ma xi mu m action expressed with a mini mum o f wo rd s. Cha mie argued

that concretist theories had become too turgid. An excess of technical

jargon scarcely helped to promote communication. By contrast, the Praxis

poet would create poems capable of being aesthetically and semantically

transformed, even manipul ated, wi th the reader's participatio n.

Poesia Praxis rejected all cano ns and dog ma s and found in spiration in

some fact or emotion without recourse to conventional themes. The new

poetry would probe words, explore potential meanings and contradic-

262




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263

tions, and invite the reader to share the experience. Chamie's factual

obser vatio ns in the foll owi ng poe m are deliberately dev oid of any

emotion:

dependo do fichrio

do ponto de meu nibus

do contrato

dependo da poupanca

do meu imposto

de minha taxa

do nome no cadastro

("Dependncia," Lavra Lavra [1962])

[I depend on the filing cabinet

on my bus stop

on my contract

I depend on my savings

on my taxes

on my rates

on the name in the register]

The tone adopte d here is disarmi ngly neutral but the poet s w ho

mustered under the banner of Poesia Praxis developed Chamie's mani

festo with striking individuality. Poesia Praxis wa s carr ied a stage furtherby Alvaro de Sa (b. 1935) and Moacy Cirne (b. 1943) who developed their

o wn variant: Poema Processo [Poem-Process] - a process influenced by

recent deve lopments in electronics and compu ter s and intended to sanitize

Concretism. Alvaro de Sa introduced the novel idea of codifying the

existing alphabet by replacing each letter with a geometrical symbol (e.g.,

" a " = a triangle; " b " = a rect angle sur rounded by a circ le, etc. ). Poets like

Antonio Carlos Cabrai, Armando Freitas Filho, Camargo Meyer (b.

1941), Car los Rodrig ues Brando (b. 1940), Clo dom ir Monte iro (b. 1939),

Jos de Oli ve ira Fa lcon (b. 1940), La ur o Juk, and Ma ur o Ga ma (b. 1938)are all "word designers" in the Chamie mould, but they strike a wide

variety of moo ds . The re is drama and horror in the "Bal ad a da cord a

bamba" by Arnaldo Saraiva, in which he contemplates the onslaught of

time and man's capacity for self-destruction. The reader's thoughts flap

and flutter in harmony with the movement of the bat itself in "Amorcega-

c o " by Cl odo mir Mont ei ro, while Yv on ne Gianetti Fonseca beats out the

robust rhythms of indigen ous ceremon ies in "N at ur ez a morta ou

tropico."

Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo soon became the Meccas for the BrazilianAvant -Garde . Both cities offered suitable outlets for exhibiting and

publishing the latest innovations. In more remote centres, smaller groups

of avant-garde poets were obliged to work in greater isolation with




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considerably less publicity. Nonetheless, interesting experiments in art

and literature cont inued to emerge from the var iou s regions of Brazil,

both north and south. Minas Gerais produced its own Avant-Garde with

the publication of Revista Tendencia (1957-1962), edited by the criticFabio Lu ca s. As the title of the journal makes clear, this enterpr ise set

trends rather than establishing a specific movement or school. Like Mario

Chamie 's Praxis poetry, the Tendencia manifesto also rejected dogmas

while inviting dialog ue. Con tac ts wer e made wi th Sao Paul o's C oncretis ts

and Post-Co ncre tis ts and an ex cha nge pr ogr am of lectures and seminars

set up. Competitions were organized to attract new talent and prize

winners had their entries published in the literary supplement of the

Estado de Minas.

T he poets Affonso Avila (b. 1928) and Affonso Romano de Sant 'Anna(b . 1937) bec ame the domin an t forces in this gr oup . Avila 's Cartas do solo

(1961) and Erases feitas (1963), examined alongside the parodic testimo

nies of Romano de Sant'Anna, illustrate the salient qualities of their

inventive structures and linear precision. Seriousness goes hand in hand

with self-parody in the work of these poets. Torn between selfand society,

Romano de Sant'Anna has to conciliate both roles:

Eu

moderno poeta, e brasileiro

com a pena e pele ressequidas ao sol dos tropicos,quando penso em escrever poemas

- aterram-me sempre os terrais problemas.

("Rainer Maria Rilke e eu")

[i

modern poet, and Brazilian

with my suffering and skin parched by the sun of the tropics,

when I think of writing poems

I am always terrified by terrestrial problems.]

He is a poet not only fearful of existence, but uncertain about the validity

of literature itself. In "E la bo ra nd o as pe rd as " the poet is shak en by the

thought that "a literatu ra tal vez nao seja mai s que um a flnada fl or"

["perhaps literature is nothing but a withered f lower"] .

Th e Revista Tendencia expanded under two new headings: Vereda

[Path] and Ptyx [the symb oli c con ch or shell]. Tech nic al ly , these are

further variations of the same formulae. The visual-spatial patterns of

Liberio Ne ve s (b. 1935) can be readily identified wit h Post -C onc ret ism

while the "min ima lis t" c ompos itio ns of Dirc eu Xa vie r (b. ?) are reminis

cent of the Japanese hai ku:

as dores que o mundo da

sao faceis de se sentir

264




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265

dificeis de se contar.

("Fragmento")

[the sorrows the world gives

are easy to feel

difficult to narrate.]

Cryptic and self-deprecating, these poets address themselves to the central

task of struggling with words and meaning. Jos Paulo Goncalves da

Costa (b. ?) sums up the cauti on and skeptic ism of his con tem por ari es:

sei pouco de filosofia

sei nada de religio.

sei l se sou poeta!

conheco sim, palavras

profundas, vigorosas, violentas

- capazes de morte e amor

num so instante.

basta-me possui-las

diz-las no preciso,

tao pouco que se acredite.

("As palavras")

[I know little about philosophy.

I know nothing about religion.

Who knows if I'm a poet!

Yes, I know words

deep, vigorous, violent

- capable of death and love

in a single instant.

I need only possess them

no need to say them,

for they are scarcely believed.]

Alongside various groups and movements, individual poets came to the

fore without any clear affiliations or commitments. They were not

indifferent to the theories and reforms of the Avant-Garde but chose to

remain independent and eclectic. Lind olfBell (b. 1938) took poetry to the

streets, to stadiums, factories, student unions, and working-men's clubs in

the form ofCatequese poetica [Poetic cate chis m]. He printed poems on T-

shirts which he defined as corpoemas [body poems], designed poster-

poems, and engraved poems on large stones. This was poetry for the

peopl e whic h he displ ayed anyw her e and eve rywher e like graffiti. FerreiraGullar who wa s instrumental in prop aga tin g Concr eti sm and Post-

Concretism, dissociated himself from both groups in the early 1960s and

turned to popular poetry. The May ak ov sk y credo that "There is no




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266

revol utiona ry art wit hou t revol ution ary for m" had made a deep impres

sion on Brazilian writers and poets and convinced them of the need for

greater political involvement. In "Coisas da terra" Gullar boldly asserts:

" T o d a s as coisas de que falo sao de carne" ["All the things of which Ispeak are made of flesh"]. His interest in social issues becom es much more

accen tuated in subsequent collect ions until the poe m becomes "u ma

ban dei ra" ["a ban ner "]. Th e verses ofPoema sujo (1977) also reveal his

deep attachment to his provincial roots. The mercurial Walmir Ayala (b.

1933) represents another common phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s,

namely, the re-emergence of a talented and versatile poet whose later

work reflects the influence of successive pos tmoder nis t trends . From the

late 1950s, Ayala also made a valuable contribution as critic, essayist, and

anthologist.Some of the most interesting poets in the 1970s and 1980s have been

described as "poetas novos moda antiga" ["new poets in the old style"] .

The description would suit Paulo Bonfim (b. 1926) from Sao Paulo and

tw o influential poets from Rio Grande do Sul, Carlos Nejar (b. 1939) and

Armindo Trevisan (b. 1933). Nejar's Odyssean poems have a timeless

quality. His native pampas create a symbolic arena for trenchant human

dramas. His gaucho antiheroes, exploited and forsaken, exemplify "a

condi^o de nao ser homem" ["the condition of not being human"]. The

gauchos and the land they inhabit are indistinguishable in a transfiguredlandscape where love, human and divine, becomes "a mais alta constela-

c a o " ["the highest constellation"]. Trevisan, too, moves with the same

ease from intimate regional scenes to the universal symbols of contempor

ary culture, as in his deeply moving "Acalan to para Mari lyn Monroe."

From the 1940s there has been an upsurge in the number of women

writing poetry. Notable for their individuality and assured technique are

Renata Pallottini (b. 1931), Olga Savary (b. 1933), Hilda Hilst (b. 1930),

Ilka Brunhilde Laurito (b. 1925), Idelma Ribeiro de Faria (b. 1924), Lupe

Cotr im Garaude (b. 1933), Adlia Prado (b. 1936), and Marly de Oliveira(b. 1935). Pallottini's admirable sonnets combine subtlety and power.

Her e is a poe t wh o can justly cla im " T en ho um ritmo frtil a latejar-me

as tmporas" ["I have a fertile rhythm throbbing in my temples"]. The

sponta neous wa rmt h and intimacy in these wo me n poets is never al low ed

to degenerate into tasteless effusions. The qualities they themselves value

are discipline and restraint. Lupe Cotrim Garaude speaks for all these

women when she describes herself as being:

. . . solitaria e precisa

nas coisas irresoluveis

- desnudada em nitidez

("Clara manh")




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267

[. . . alone and precise

amidst irresolvable things

- stripped down to clarity]

They shun any sentimentality or fatuous confidences and, as Marly deOliveira reminds us, "u ma f era " ["a wi ld beas t"] lurks benea th this cal m

exterior. She sums up the common pursuit of all the women poets of her

generation in two short lines:

Poesia e caminho, unica vertigem

alem do amor, da anunciacao

("Invocacao de Orpheu")

[Poetry is a path, the only vertigo

beyond love or annunciation]

T o conclude, it is important to note the wider contributions made by

nearly all the poets in this survey to Brazilian culture in general. Like the

precu rsors of Mo de rn is m, they have exce lled as poets , critics, essayists,

transl ators, and drama tists . Th ey hav e pro pag ate d the values of Braz ilian

art and literature as lecturers, journalists, and diplomats throughout

Euro pe and No rt h Am er ic a. Ma ny of their poe ms have been set to music

by com pos ers of both cl assical and pop ula r mus ic. M os t of all, they hav e

set standar ds of literary excellence wh ic h pro vide sound gui dan ce for

those who will succeed them. The battles of the Generation of 1922 werenot fought in vain. The artistic integrity and freedom to experiment they

achieved have lost none of their mo ment um .




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