RUY BELO: HARMONIA DE FORÇAS OPOSTAS

Abstract

The works of Ruy Belo, Portuguese poet who publishes his first book in 1961, is extremely representative of a rediscovery and a canonization of modernism that takes place in the nineteen sixties. His essays collected in Na senda da poesia (published in 1969), the prefaces Belo often adds to his poetry books, and a certain theory that one observes in his verses seem to make a reflection on the nature of poetry and on its role. Bus this reflection is not determined by simple binary oppositions such as pretending (Fernando Pessoa) and witnessing (Jorge de Sena), or the freedom of art and its engagement. The analysis of one single poem, O portugal futuro, published in Homem de palavra(s), shows how these opposing forces reunite in Ruy Belo’s work.