Frank Auletti

Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa was a Portuguese poet who lived in

South Africa

Fernando Pessoa Pessoa wrote in many different heteronyms. These

heteronyms wrote in different languages. Languages such as English (Alexander Search), and Portuguese (lvaro de Campos).

Background

Pessoas writing was very dark, and each of his heteronyms had a different identity. He used these identities to escape from the life he lead. Pessoa often wrote poems where he wrote about his other heteronyms and created a community of these alter-egos.

Background

Fernando Pessoa was a heroin addict Pessoa broke up with his only girlfriend twice Pessoa also lived a very rough life where he struggled

with expressing his emotions.. He used composition as his escape

Judge a Poem By Its Title

What elements do you think this poem (Storm Sonata) will have? Do you think the end of the sonnet will make

you more hopeful or less hopeful than from the beginning? Do you even think a poem could illicit that

much emotion in such a short constraint of time?

Pessoa Storm Sonnet

What lies in the abyss beneath the sea that rises up? We, Portugal, the possibility of becoming.

What restlessness from the depths lifts us up? The wish to be able to become.

This, and the mystery of which night is the splendor

But suddenly, where the wind roars, A lighting bolt, beacon of God, for a moment

Shines and the dark sea thunders.

Storm Sonnet

How does this sonnet make you feel? What images does the poem evoke to you, the reader? Do you see dark

colors, light colors, shades, or shadows?

Music and his writing

Pessoa throughly enjoyed music and used it as another technique to escape his depressing life.. It is said that his inspiration for this sonnet is from Beethoven's Storm Sonata. Listen to the Storm Sonata and see if you can make any connections to the Sonnet by Pessoa.

Beethovens Storm Sonata Performance by: Tiago Mariz

The Mad Fiddler

Pessoa wrote, The Mad Fiddler under the heteronym, Alexander Search. Search was an English poet who mainly wrote sonnets and stories that were very personal to Pessoas life. In The Mad Fiddler Pessoa discovers a new voice and a new style of writing.

The Mad FiddlerNot from the northern road, Not from the southern way, First his wild music flowed Into the village that day. He suddenly was in the lane, The people came out to hear, He suddenly went, and in vain Their hopes wished him to appear. His music strange did fret Each heart to wish 'twas free. It was not a melody, yet It was not no melody.

Somewhere far away, Somewhere far outside Being forced to live, they Felt this tune replied. Replied to that longing All have in their breasts, To lost sense belonging To forgotten quests.

Replied to that longing All have in their breasts, To lost sense belonging To forgotten quests. The happy wife now knew That she had married ill, The glad fond lover grew Weary of loving still, The maid and the boy felt glad That they had dreaming only, The lone hearts that were sad Felt somewhere less lonely. In each soul woke the flower Whose touch leaves earthless dust, The soul's husband's first hour, The thing completing us, The shadow that comes to bless From kissed depths unexpressed, The luminous restlessness That is better than rest. As he came, he went. They felt him but half-be. Then he was quietly blent With silence and memory.

Sleep left again their laughter, Their tranced hope ceased to last, And but a small time after They knew not he had passed. Yet when the sorrow of living, Because life is not willed, Comes back in dreams' hours, giving A sense of life being chilled, Suddenly each remembers - It glows like a coming moon On where their dream-life embers - The mad fiddler's tune.

What was different?

You may have realized that Pessoa wrote a bit differently in his disguise as Alexander Search, but his writing is still very dark and emotionally heavy. Search writes more personally than Pessoa and more freely because these poems were published under a different name.

Prompt

Now that you see how Pessoa handles his emotions, how would you express yourself if you were able to write under a different pen name. Write one short poem (at least one stanza) about something that is on your mind, something that may be frustrating you.. Write one stanza as yourself and write another stanza using a pen name. How does that effect your voice as a writer? Does it effect your writing style as well?