Analysis of Sonnet I.

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



Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.


Scheme ABABCDCEFGFGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 1011111111 11101111 1010101111 10111110001 1011110101 11101010101 101111 01110011101 00111111011 11011111110 10101011101 1111011011010 111011001111 01111011101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 571
Words 111
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 462
Words per stanza (avg) 111
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
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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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