Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Encyclopedia
Carlos Drummond de Andrade (October 31, 1902 - August 17, 1987) was perhaps the most influential Brazilian
poet
of the 20th century. He has become something of a national poet; his poem "Canção Amiga" ("Friendly Song") was printed on the 50 cruzados note. He is considered to be among the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.
, a mining village in Minas Gerais
in southeastern Brazil. His parents were farmers belonging to old Brazilian families. He went to a school of pharmacy
in Belo Horizonte
, but never worked as a pharmacist after graduation. He worked in government service for most of his life, eventually becoming director of history for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.
Though his earliest poems are formal and satirical, Drummond quickly adopted the new forms of Brazilian modernism that were evolving in the 1920s, incited by the work of Mário de Andrade
(to whom he was not related). He adopted a Whitmanian
free verse
, mingling speech fluent in elegance and truth about the surrounding, many times quotidian, world, with a fluidity of thought.
Drummond's popularity has been credited because a great part of his poetry (especially after lirycal maturity) has acquired an impressive capacity for the translation of ideas, transforming his particular troubles into a tool for universal communication.
One of Drummond's best-known poems is his hymn to an ordinary man, "José." It is a poem of desolation
The work of Carlos Drummond is generally divided into several segments, which appear very markedly in each of his books. But this is somewhat misleading, since even in the midst of his everyday poems or his socialist, politicized poems, there appear creations which can be easily incorporated into his later metaphysical canon, and none of these styles is completely free of the others. There is surely much metaphysical content in even his most political poems.
The most prominent of these later metaphysical poems is A Máquina do Mundo (The World's Machine). The poem deals with an anti-Faust
referred to in the first person, who receives the visit of the aforementioned Machine, which stands for all possible knowledge, and the sum of the answers for all the questions which afflict men; in highly dramatic and baroque versification the poem develops only for the anonymous subject to decline the offer of endless knowledge and proceed his gloomy path in the solitary road. It takes the renaissance allegory of the Machine of the World from Portugal
's most esteemed poet, Luís de Camões
, more precisely, from a canto at the end of his epic masterpiece Os Lusíadas
. There are also hints from Dante
and the form is adapted from T. S. Eliot
's dantesque passage in "Little Gidding
."
One of those said segments have been found only after his death: deliberately erotical poetry. That type of poetry has been published in only one book "Moça deitada na grama" (woman laid down in the grass) with the autorization and actual intervention by his son.
Drummond is a favorite of American poets, a number of whom, including Mark Strand
and Lloyd Schwartz
, have translated him. Later writers and critics have sometimes credited his relationship with Elizabeth Bishop
, his first English language
translator, as influential for his American reception, but though she admired him Bishop claimed she barely knew him. In an interview with George Starbuck
in 1977, she said, "I didn't know him at all. He's supposed to be very shy. I'm supposed to be very shy. We've met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced."
His poetry is divided into three parts:
In the late 1980s, his poetry started to become more erotic.
Portuguese
Spanish
Literature of Brazil
Brazilian literature is written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, even if prior to Brazil's independence from Portugal, in 1822...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
of the 20th century. He has become something of a national poet; his poem "Canção Amiga" ("Friendly Song") was printed on the 50 cruzados note. He is considered to be among the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.
Biography
Drummond was born in ItabiraItabira
Itabira is a Brazilian municipal district and one of the main cities of the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Itabira....
, a mining village in Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
in southeastern Brazil. His parents were farmers belonging to old Brazilian families. He went to a school of pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
in Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...
, but never worked as a pharmacist after graduation. He worked in government service for most of his life, eventually becoming director of history for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.
Though his earliest poems are formal and satirical, Drummond quickly adopted the new forms of Brazilian modernism that were evolving in the 1920s, incited by the work of Mário de Andrade
Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada in 1922...
(to whom he was not related). He adopted a Whitmanian
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, mingling speech fluent in elegance and truth about the surrounding, many times quotidian, world, with a fluidity of thought.
Drummond's popularity has been credited because a great part of his poetry (especially after lirycal maturity) has acquired an impressive capacity for the translation of ideas, transforming his particular troubles into a tool for universal communication.
One of Drummond's best-known poems is his hymn to an ordinary man, "José." It is a poem of desolation
The work of Carlos Drummond is generally divided into several segments, which appear very markedly in each of his books. But this is somewhat misleading, since even in the midst of his everyday poems or his socialist, politicized poems, there appear creations which can be easily incorporated into his later metaphysical canon, and none of these styles is completely free of the others. There is surely much metaphysical content in even his most political poems.
The most prominent of these later metaphysical poems is A Máquina do Mundo (The World's Machine). The poem deals with an anti-Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
referred to in the first person, who receives the visit of the aforementioned Machine, which stands for all possible knowledge, and the sum of the answers for all the questions which afflict men; in highly dramatic and baroque versification the poem develops only for the anonymous subject to decline the offer of endless knowledge and proceed his gloomy path in the solitary road. It takes the renaissance allegory of the Machine of the World from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
's most esteemed poet, Luís de Camões
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas...
, more precisely, from a canto at the end of his epic masterpiece Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas , usually translated as The Lusiads, is a Portuguese epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões ....
. There are also hints from Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
and the form is adapted from T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's dantesque passage in "Little Gidding
Four Quartets
Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral...
."
One of those said segments have been found only after his death: deliberately erotical poetry. That type of poetry has been published in only one book "Moça deitada na grama" (woman laid down in the grass) with the autorization and actual intervention by his son.
Drummond is a favorite of American poets, a number of whom, including Mark Strand
Mark Strand
Mark Strand is an American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Since 2005, he has been a professor of English at Columbia University.- Biography :...
and Lloyd Schwartz
Lloyd Schwartz
Lloyd Schwartz is an American poet who is Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston...
, have translated him. Later writers and critics have sometimes credited his relationship with Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
, his first English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translator, as influential for his American reception, but though she admired him Bishop claimed she barely knew him. In an interview with George Starbuck
George Starbuck
George Edwin Starbuck was an American poet of the neo-formalist school.-Life:...
in 1977, she said, "I didn't know him at all. He's supposed to be very shy. I'm supposed to be very shy. We've met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced."
Modernism
Drummond, as a modernist, follows the style proposed by Mário and Oswald de Andrade; making use of free verse, and not depending on a fixed meter. If modernism was to be divided into lyrical and subjective or objective and concrete, Drummond would be part of the latter, similar to Oswald de Andrade.Style
Drummond was the first great poet to assert himself after the premiere modernist of Brazil and created a unique style dominated by his beautiful writing. His work displays linguistic freedom and free verse. But it goes beyond that: "The work of Drummond reaches - as Fernando Pessoa and Jorge de Lima and Murilo Mendes Herberto Helder - a coefficient of loneliness that detached from the soil of history, leading the reader to an attitude free of references, trademarks or ideological or prospective, "said Alfredo Bosi (1994).His poetry is divided into three parts:
- I, greater than the world - marked by ironic poetry
- I, lower than the world - marked by social poetry
- I, equal to the world - covers the metaphysical poetry
In the late 1980s, his poetry started to become more erotic.
Poetry
- Brejo das Almas (1934)
- Sentimento do Mundo (1940)
- José (1942)
- A Rosa do Povo (1945)
- Claro Enigma (1951)
- Fazendeiro do ar (1954)
- Quadrilha (1954)
- Viola de Bolso (1955)
- Lição de Coisas (1964)
- Boitempo (1968)
- A falta que ama (1968)
- Nudez (1968)
- As Impurezas do Branco (1973)
- Menino Antigo (Boitempo II) (1973)
- A Visita (1977)
- Discurso de Primavera e Algumas Sombras (1977)
- O marginal Clorindo Gato (1978)
- Esquecer para Lembrar (Boitempo III) (1979)
- A Paixão Medida (1980)
- Caso do Vestido (1983)
- Corpo (1984)
- Amar se aprende amando (1985)
- Poesia Errante (1988)
- O Amor Natural (1992)
- Farewell (1996)
- Os ombros suportam o mundo(1935)
- Futebol a arte (1970)
- Antologia poética:
- A última pedra no meu caminho (1950)
- 50 poemas escolhidos pelo autor (1956)
- Antologia Poética (1962)
- Antologia Poética (1965)
- Seleta em Prosa e Verso (1971)
- Amor, Amores (1975)
- Carmina drummondiana (1982)
- Boitempo I e Boitempo II (1987)
- Minha morte (1987)
- O Elefante (1983)
- História de dois amores (1985)
- O pintinho (1988)
- Carol e Dinha(2009)
Prose
- Confissões de Minas (1944)
- Contos de Aprendiz (1951)
- Passeios na Ilha (1952)
- Fala, amendoeira (1957)
- A bolsa & a vida (1962)
- Cadeira de balanço (1966)
- Caminhos de João Brandão (1970)
- O poder ultrajovem e mais 79 textos em prosa e verso (1972)
- De notícias & não-notícias faz-se a crônica (1974)
- Os dias lindos (1977)
- 70 historinhas (1978)
- Contos plausíveis (1981)
- Boca de luar (1984)
- O observador no escritório (1985)
- Tempo vida poesia (1986)
- Moça deitada na grama (1987)
- O avesso das coisas (1988)
- Auto-retrato e outras crônicas (1989)
- As histórias das muralhas (1989)
English translations
- Souvenir of the Ancient World, translated by Mark Strand (Antaeus Editions, 1976)
- Looking for Poetry: Poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Rafael Alberti, with Songs from the Quechua, translated by Mark Strand (Knopf, 2002)
- Travelling in the family : selected poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, translated by Thomas Colchie (Random House, 1986)
- The minus sign: selected poems, translated by Virginia de Araujo (Black Swan, 1980)
- In the middle of the road; selected poems, translated by John A Nist (U of Arizona, 1965)
Further reading
English- Brazilian writers (encyclopedia) / Mônica Rector, ed. 2005
- Seven Faces: Brazilian Poetry since Modernism / Charles A. Perrone, 1996
- The Cambridge history of Latin American literature. Volume 3, Brazilian literature / Roberto González Echevarría., 1996
- Tropical paths: essays on modern Brazilian literature / Randal Johnson., 1993
- Brazilian literature: a research bibliography / David William Foster., 1990
- The unquiet self: self and society in the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Ricardo Sternberg., 1986
- Carlos Drummond de Andrade and his generation : proceedings / Frederick G Williams., 1986
- The poetry and poetics of Carlos Drummond de Andrade; diss. / John Gledson., 1979
- The theme of human communication in the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, article / Mary Patricia O'Brien., 1970
Portuguese
- Drummond cordial / Jerônimo Teixeira., 2005
- A rima na poesia de Carlos Drummond de Andrade & outros ensaios / Hélcio de Andrade Martins., 2005
- Drummond, a magia lúcida / Marlene de Castro Correia., 2002
- Leituras de Drummond / Flávio Loureiro Chaves., 2002
- Drummond: um olhar amoroso / Luzia de Maria., 2002
- A prosa à luz da poesia em Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Regina Souza Vieira., 2002
- Carlos Drummond de Andrade: a poética do cotidiano / Maria Veronica Aguilera., 2002
- Drummond, poesia e experiência / Ivete Lara Camargos Walty., 2002
- Drummond revisitado / Chantal Castelli., 2002
- Coração partido: uma análise da poesia reflexiva de Drummond / Davi Arrigucci Júnior., 2002
- Drummond: da rosa do povo à rosa das trevas / Vagner Camilo., 2001
- Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Francisco Achcar., 2000
- Ideologia e forma literária em Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Lucila Nogueira., 1990
Spanish
- Una poética de la despreocupación: modernidad e identidad en cuatro poetas latinoamericanos / Rafael Rodríguez., 2003
- Drummond, el poeta en el tiempo / Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna., 2003
- Las retoricas de la decadencia: Martí, Palés, Drummond / Maribel Roig., 2001
- Estado de alerta y estado de inocencia : algunas reflexiones sobre la poesía y el arte / E Bayley., 1996
- Manuel Bandeira, Cecilia Meireles, Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Cipriano S Vitureira., 1952
External links
- E agora José? What now José?
- The DVD of the film O Amor Natural by Heddy Honigmann, on the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade
- [Music] O Amor Natural, the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade translated into music by Georgia Dias & Boca
- The Elephant, translated by Mark Strand. From PloughsharesPloughsharesPloughshares is an American literary magazine founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in the heart of Boston...
, 1975. - In the Middle of the Road, translated by Elizabeth Bishop. Biography of Carlos Drummond de Andrade .