Sophia de mello Breyner Andresen: the poetry of “Amazement”

Abstract

The article analyses the poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919–2004), one of the main Portuguese poets of the 20th century, and aims to substantiate the aesthetic effect of delight/amazement, which, according to Portuguese literary critics and scholars, is characteristic of the author’s lyrics. The analysis was carried out on the material of poems from the collection “Obra poética” (2015). Theoretically the research is based on the cognitive poetics of R. Tsur and the aesthetic conception of I. Kant. The methods include continuous sampling, the quantitative method, contextual, stylistic and semantic analysis. The results of the study show that the representation of the Beautiful and the Sublime is one of the constants of Sophia de Mello’s poetry. In the authors lyrics the category of the Beautiful is represented by the elements of the natural world (61 %) and artifacts (39 %). The main representations of the Sublime include the sea, the sky, the plains and the deserts. Most often, the author refers to seascapes that combine all the characteristics of the Sublime: boundless space, height and intense sound of waves, connection with distant time and eternity, as well as absolute silence and darkness inherent in the depths of the sea. The effect of delight/amazement caused by the aesthetic contact with the Beautiful and Sublime is strengthened by the use of linguistic and stylistic means. Describing objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, the poet gives preference to the concrete nouns, uses the technique of sense verbalization, including in a synesthetic key, as well as metaphors with a perceptual component. All this contributes to the realism of the created images and enhances their infl uence on the reader.