BRAZILIAN CONTEMPORARY POETRY: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Although it may seem an impossible task to offer a panorama of contemporary Brazilian poetry, we will discuss a selection of poets who possibly epitomize the most significant current trends. We start with a brief presentation of four well-regarded authors whose works represent major poetic currents: Augusto de Campos, Francisco Alvim, Armando Freitas Filho and Adélia Prado. We then comment on excerpts from a few important younger poets, whose works embrace several different tones and styles, from indigenous symbolic mythology to crude or ironic testimonials of life in the big city, from melodious lyrical intimacy to a more social perspective. For the second part of this article, we have chosen Paulo Henriques Britto, Josely Vianna Baptista, Ricardo Aleixo, Carlito Azevedo, Eucanaã Ferraz and Ana Martins Marques. We hope this preliminary selection may awaken the interest of future readers to the enormous variety and richness of Brazilian poetry.