Tensions between the self and the world in the mystical poetry of Murilo Mendes and Jorge de Lima

Abstract

This article presents a critical reading of the mystical poetry of Murilo Mendes and Jorge de Lima, poets who stood out in the second generation of Brazilian modernist poetry. We start with a brief discussion about Festa magazine – an important periodical for understanding the mystical tendency of the modernist movement – and then we focus on the two poets. The poem “Ofício humano”, from the book Poesia liberdade (1947), by Murilo Mendes, and the poem number 6 from Anúncio e encontro de Mira-Celi (1943), by Jorge de Lima, are starting points for this discussion. We defend the argument that the mystical poetry of both poets proposes a confrontation between the self and the world, and that from this clash arise the various oppositions that underlie their works. Some considerations about modernity (MONTEIRO, 1965; MILOSZ, 2012) and mystique (AEROPAGITA, 2021; SCHOLEM, 2012; UNAMUNO, 2013) help us in this reading.