A lírica do moribundo Manuel Bandeira – Poesia de vida e morte

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the poetry of Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968) during the Brazilian Modernism period (which began in Brazil, 1922, marked by the Week of Modern Art). Known for his autobiographical poems, particularly regarding deathrelated themes, Bandeira offers us mostly a life rich poetry, treating everyday events with accuracy, and yet with uttermost delicacy and simplicity. Here we expose the influence of death on Bandeira’s poetry, and highlight aspects of his personal life and of his poetry that is flooded with the essence of moribundity, by means of the book Estrela da vida inteira (2007), an extensive compilation of the poet’s entire lyric work. A few poems from this volume were selected for careful appraisal. We studied the enactment of death in western society and compared it to the enactment of this theme during the Middle Ages and up to the present, applying concepts and schemas from Philippe Ariès (1914-1984) in História da morte no Ocidente (2012). We analyzed the emotional feelings depicted from the viewpoint of the man, of the poet, of the poetic persona, and of the poetry that is flooded by the existence of “Flag”, as Bandeira tenderly referred to his friend Mário de Andrade.