Analysis of the poem Portrait, by Cecília Meireles

Cecília Meireles (1901-1964) was the two largest names in Brazilian literature. I have written both for adults and for children.

You verses of Portrait There are two more conhecidos of her extensive work and, despite the fact that it was published in 1939, I do not have Viagem, it remains timeless because it addresses the universal theme of transitory life.

Poem Portrait na whole

Eu não tinha this face of the leaf,
Assim calm, assim sad, assim lean,
Nem estes olhos tão vazios,
Nem or bitter lip.

Eu não tinha these mãos sem força,
Tão stops and cold and dead;
Eu não tinha this heart
That nem was shown.

Eu não dei for this move,
So simple, so certain, so easy:
- What a spell I am lost
a minha face?

Detailed analysis of the poem Portrait

Either a melancholic poem by Cecília Meireles is intended to create a portrait of a poetic subject, or a title, therefore, quite compatible as the reader will find two verses a long time ago.

On the other hand, we usually associate a portrait with something that registers a physical component - an image - enquanto us verses of Cecília or portrait is much more profound and able to capture what is happening internally.

First part of the poem

Eu não tinha this face of the leaf,

Assim calm, assim sad, assim lean,

Nem estes olhos tão vazios,

Nem or bitter lip.

The first four verses of the poem are built on the basis of a central opposition between past and present.

There is a comparison between what happened before and how the eu-lyrical is found now, despite not being clear or the reason behind the radical change. Not present we see registered or served.

Second part of the poem

Eu não tinha these mãos sem força,

Tão stops and cold and dead;

Eu não tinha this heart

That nem was shown.

In the initial part of the poem we see, duma maneira geral, at the verification that something changed for the little subject that was portrayed, here this change becomes more specific. O eu-lrico chooses parts of the body to illustrate what happened, for example, giving more force to his story.

The fala do agora, sem to mention how it was as accurate not passed. We know that most of the time we are cold, dead and hard and, by this description, we are able to imagine how vivid they were, not past - embora that part is not portrayed, not poem.

Or heart, another open, passed through changes and found himself locked up.

Third part of the poem

Eu não dei for this move,

So simple, so certain, so easy:

- What a spell I am lost

a minha face?

A força do poem is especially given as a final conclusion, where or poetic subject strikes with mastery everything or that has been working on the previous verses.

This moment or eu-lyrical assumes that we do not perceive in what moment to its changed condition, we can identify or that it may have happened so that everything has been done differently.

A creation is closed as a question - the only poem - not answered, as an extremely visual component. Ao he wondered what spell his face of him was lost or subject, he assumed that he did not recognize himself more depois of his transformation and wanted to know at what moment he lost his identity.

A history of the publication of the poem Portrait

To work Portrait I was published I do not release Travel, em 1939. A publication was awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Letters and it was launched including for Brazil, having first been distributed in Portugal in 1939.

At the time, Cecília was professionally consecrated both as a great writer and as a teacher. As professor she was responsible for the cadeira of Portuguese-Brazilian Literature, Technical and Folklore, at the University of Distrito Federal e, logo to follow, from its classrooms to the discipline of Brazilian Literature and Culture at the University of Austin, Texas.

During this same period, Cecília Meireles also acted as journalist for the journal and was the responsible editor for the Travel in Brasil magazine (edited by the Department of Printing and Propaganda).

Or poem Portrait chegou to be recited by Cecília Meireles and is available online:

Gosta das criações da writer? Then take the opportunity to discover other works of the through two artigos:

• Imperdíveis poems by Cecília Meireles
• Poems by Cecília Meireles for crianças
• Analysis of the poem Ou isto ou aquilo by Cecília Meireles

Formed in Literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2010), Master of Literature at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2013) and doutora in Studies of Culture of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and of the Portuguese Catholic University of Lisbon (2018).