Sonnet III.

Fernando Pessoa 1888 (Lisbon District) – 1935 (Lisbon)



When I do think my meanest line shall be
More in Time's use than my creating whole,
That future eyes more clearly shall feel me
In this inked page than in my direct soul;
When I conjecture put to make me seeing
Good readers of me in some aftertime,
Thankful to some idea of my being
That doth not even my with gone true soul rime;
An anger at the essence of the world,
That makes this thus, or thinkable this wise,
Takes my soul by the throat and makes it hurled
In nightly horrors of despaired surmise,
And I become the mere sense of a rage
That lacks the very words whose waste might 'suage.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
23

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 580
Words 116
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Fernando Pessoa

Biography of Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935): One of the most prominent modernist poet of the Portuguese language. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He published poems under his real name and dozens of other personas. Apart from Fernando Pessoa himself (“ele mesmo”), the most famous ones are: Alberto Caiero, Álvaro de Campos e Ricardo Reis; each one with his own personality, mannerisms and profession: Álvaro de Campos (an engineer, who had been educated in England; influenced by symbolism); Ricardo Reis (a physician, a pastoral poet); Alberto Caieiro (a countryman and poet, who wrote simple verses). more…

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