Consciência reflexiva, tempo presente, cidade futura: sobre A rosa do povo, de Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Abstract

Taking as a starting point some thematic elements identified by critics in the work of Drummond, this paper aims to discuss the conjunction of motifs concerning the individual and those related to the historical time, in order to discern the particular configuration of the poetic subject in poems of A rosa do povo. Thus, the desire for self-annihilation of the bourgeois individual will be read in its connection to the criticism of the present time and the hope for a redeemed future, taking into account the poet’s class position, as well as the historical character and the limits of this conjunction. In the early Drummond the ironic and humorous mood dominates so that the poet unfolds and expands his subjectivity to comfort the pains of his diminished self, whereas here the individual caught in the present time’s political deadlock seems to find comfort in the imminent promise of an emancipated society. However, Drummond's subsequent work would reveal the limits of the future expectation depicted in A rosa do povo, which would soon face a historical downfall.