João Cabral de Melo Neto (January 6, 1920 – October 9, 1999) was a Brazilian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and diplomat, and one of the most influential writers in late Brazilian

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. He was awarded the 1990

Camões Prize The Camões Prize (Portuguese, ''Prémio Camões'', ), named after Luís de Camões, is the most important prize for literature in the Portuguese language. It is awarded annually by the Portuguese ''Direção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bi ...

and the 1992

Neustadt International Prize for Literature The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more prestigious inte ...

, the only Brazilian poet to receive such award to date. He was considered until his death a perennial competitor for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Melo Neto's works are noted for the rigorous, yet inventive attention they pay to the formal aspects of poetry. He derives his characteristic sound from a traditional verse of five or seven syllables (called ‘’redondilha’’) and from the constant use of oblique rhymes. His style ranges from the

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

tendency which marked his early poetry to the use of regional elements of his native northeastern Brazil. In many works, including the famed

auto Auto may refer to: * An automaton * An automobile * An autonomous car * An automatic transmission * An auto rickshaw * Short for automatic * Auto (art), a form of Portuguese dramatic play * ''Auto'' (film), 2007 Tamil comedy film * Auto (play), ...

'' Morte e Vida Severina'', Melo Neto's addresses the life of those affected by the poverty and inequality in

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

Life and career

Melo Neto was born in

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

, and spent most of his youth in his family's sugar-cane mills in the interior of the state. He was a cousin of distinguished poet

Manuel Bandeira Manuel Carneiro de Sousa Bandeira Filho (April 19, 1886 – October 13, 1968) was a Brazilian poet, literary critic, and translator, who wrote over 20 books of poetry and prose. Life and career Bandeira was born in Recife, Pernambuco. In 190 ...

and sociologist

Gilberto Freyre Gilberto de Mello Freyre (March 15, 1900 – July 18, 1987) was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist, congressman born in Recife, Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. He is commonly associated with other ...

. In 1940, his family moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. Two years later, Melo Neto published his first book of poems, ''Pedra do Sono'', from his own expense, with a circulation of 340 copies. In 1945, he applied to the post of diplomat, a position he would hold for most of his life. The following year, he married Stella Maria Barbosa de Oliveira, with whom he had five children. After passing through several different countries, he became

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

of Brazil in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

in 1984, only returning to Rio de Janeiro three years later. He worked for many years in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, and his experiences in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

would leave palpable influences in his poetry. In 1956, Melo Neto published his most famous work, '' Morte e Vida Severina'', and, in 1968, he was elected to the 37th chair of the

Brazilian Academy of Letters The Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) ( English: ''Brazilian Academy of Letters'') is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on Tue ...

. In 1986, he married Marly de Oliveira and, two years later, he retired, resigning from his office as ambassador. Melo Neto died in 1999, in Rio de Janeiro. In a career spanning more than fifty years, Melo Neto published 18 books of poetry and two plays.

Poetry

The image of an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

designing a

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...

, an epithet Melo Neto himself adopted, is often used to describe his poetry. From the start, his poetry was extraordinarily rich in imagery. Commenting ''Pedra do Sono'', his first book,

Antonio Candido Antonio Candido de Mello e Souza (July 24, 1918 – May 12, 2017) was a Brazilian writer, professor, sociologist, and literary critic. As a critic of Brazilian literature, he is regarded as having been one of the foremost scholars on the subject ...

, who noted his debt to cubism and surrealism, observed how his poems were composed from the accumulation of concrete and sensory images, using words in an almost pictorial manner. Quickly, however, he proved highly attentive to the social reality of his state. In ''O cão sem plumas'' (“A Dog without Feathers”)’, his first long poem, dated from 1950, he portrayed the lives of the destitute classes, who depended on the Capibaribe River, and described the toiling of the sugar-cane mill. Three years later, in ''O Rio'' (“The River”) he assumed the voice of the river, narrating in first-person its course and the villages and landscapes it crossed. Clarifying his debts to Melo Neto,

Augusto de Campos Augusto de Campos (born 14 February 1931, São Paulo) is a Brazilian writer who (with his brother Haroldo de Campos) was a founder of the Concrete poetry movement in Brazil. He is also a translator, music critic and visual artist. Work In 1952 ...

has said: “One might say that he has no antecedents in Brazilian poetry, but his work has consequences. It is Concrete poetry that will sustain, continue, expand and broaden this poetic language that is not sentimental, but objective, a poetry of concretude, a critical poetry, as João's poetry is.”"Pode-se dizer que ele não tem antecedentes na poesia brasileira, a obra dele tem conseqüentes. Porque é a poesia concreta que vai manter, continuar, expandir e levar para outros caminhos essa linhagem de uma poesia não sentimental, de uma poesia objetiva, uma poesia de concretude, uma poesia crítica, como é a poesia de João." Quoted in:

Works

Poetry

* 1942: Pedra do Sono (''Slumber Stone'') * 1943: Os Três Mal-Amados (''The Three Unloved'') * 1945: O Engenheiro (''The Engineer'') * 1947: Psicologia da Composição com a Fábula de Anfion e Antiode (''Psychology of Composition with the Fable of Amphion and Anti-Ode'') * 1950: O Cão sem Plumas (''The Dog without Feathers'') * 1953: O Rio ou Relação da Viagem que Faz o Capibaribe de Sua Nascente à Cidade do Recife (''The River or On the Course of the Capibaribe River from Its Source to the City of Recife'') * 1960: Dois Parlamentos (''Two Parliaments'') * 1960: Quaderna * 1966: A Educação pela Pedra (''Education by the Stone'') * 1975: Museu de Tudo (''Museum of Everything'') * 1980: A Escola das Facas (''The School of the Knives'') * 1985: Agrestes * 1987: Crime na Calle Relator (''Crime in Relator Street'') * 1990: Primeiros Poemas (''First Poems'') * 1990: Sevilha Andando (''Walking around Seville'')

Autos

*1955: Morte e Vida Severina (translated in part by

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

as ''Life and Death of a Severino'') *1984: Auto do Frade (''Auto of the Frair'')

References

External links

* ttp://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9018463/Joao-Cabral-de-Melo-Neto Encyclopædia Britannica Joao Cabral de Melo Neto {{DEFAULTSORT:Neto, Joao Cabral De Melo 1920 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Brazilian poets Brazilian male poets Brazilian diplomats Brazilian expatriates in Spain Camões Prize winners Members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters 20th-century Brazilian male writers Brazilian expatriates in Portugal

Life and career

Poetry

Works

Poetry

Autos

Further reading

References

External links