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Novos Poemas (New poems)
Rio de Janeiro, José Olympio, 1938
New Poems is a book that points out the moment of rupture in the poetic work - and life – of Vinicius de Moraes. The title, indicating the novelty, lives up to the formal and thematic renewal of his poems. Adopting the sonnet as a privileged space of his researches with rhymes and rhythms, combining fixed form to the broader and wordy verses that he used to utilize, and would still utilize at other times, the material published in New Poems is conclusive for Vinicius’s becoming part of the team of the greatest poets of his generation.
This is the fourth book released by Vinicius in the short interval of five years. His productivity only grew and the will to live of literature too. Like many writers of that time, he oscillated between a public service and journalism as parallel means of survival. The literature was gradually leading his career and even after becoming ambassador and chronicler he shall be known from then and forever as a Poet.
The book, by its freshness and renewal vivacity in poems like "Soneto de intimidade” (Sonnet of intimacy), "A Mulher que passa” (The woman passing by) or "Lamento ouvido não sei onde” (A moan heard don’t know where), generated a text from his friend and then already renowned poet and critic Mário de Andrade, honored by Vinicius himself in the dedicatory of the poem “A mascara da noite” (The night mask). The friend, however, did not cease to be critical. Pointed out, constructively, the flaws in writing some poems, understanding it to be a book of "transition" to someone who could already claim a place among "the greatest poets of Brazil.”
This is the fourth book released by Vinicius in the short interval of five years. His productivity only grew and the will to live of literature too. Like many writers of that time, he oscillated between a public service and journalism as parallel means of survival. The literature was gradually leading his career and even after becoming ambassador and chronicler he shall be known from then and forever as a Poet.
The book, by its freshness and renewal vivacity in poems like "Soneto de intimidade” (Sonnet of intimacy), "A Mulher que passa” (The woman passing by) or "Lamento ouvido não sei onde” (A moan heard don’t know where), generated a text from his friend and then already renowned poet and critic Mário de Andrade, honored by Vinicius himself in the dedicatory of the poem “A mascara da noite” (The night mask). The friend, however, did not cease to be critical. Pointed out, constructively, the flaws in writing some poems, understanding it to be a book of "transition" to someone who could already claim a place among "the greatest poets of Brazil.”
Bibliographical Note
On the cover, there is the following statement under the heading: (1949-1956). The numbering in Roman indicates the book “New Poems”, from 1938; bur the dates, undoubtedly, list the period in which the poems of the book were written.