[BNP/E3, 14A – 66-67]

I. I. Crosse

Álvaro de Campos is one of the very greatest rhythmists[1] that there has ever been. Every metric paragraph of his is a finished work of art. He makes definite, perfectly “curved” stanzas of these irregular “meters”.

He is the most violent of all writers. His master Whitman is mild and calm compared to him. Yet the more turbulent of the 2 poets is the most self-controlled. He is so violent that enough of the energy of his violence remains for him[2] to use it in |disciplining| his violence.

The violence of the Naval Ode is perfectly insane. Yet it is unparalleled in art, and because its violence is such.

[66v]

His volcanic emotion, his violence of sensation, his formidable shifting from violence to tenderness, from a passion for great and loud things to a love of humble and quiet ones, his unparalleled transitions, his sudden silences, sudden pauses… his change from unstable to |equable| states of mind - none has ever approached him in the {…} of this hysteria of our age.

The classic training of his early years, that never deserts him (for he is one of the most unified of poets, and ever a builder and a fitter-together of parts in an organic whole); his individual instability, his mathematical training and scientific training, adding another stabilizing influence (never too much for such a volcanic temperament) {…}

[67r]

3

His ferverous[3] contempt of small things, of small people, of all our age, because it is composed of small things and of small people.

This quasi-futurist who loves the great classic poets because they were great and despises the literary men of his time because they are all small.

His art of conveying sensations by a single stroke: 

A fita cor-de-rosa deixada em cima da cómoda,

O último brinquedo partido (comboio ainda com a fita suja para o puxar)

Da criança inevitavelmente morta, ó mãe de preto a dobrar-lhe o fato.

His terrible self-analysis, making suddenly cold all his emotion, as in the “Salutation”.

 
[1] rhythmists /masters of rhythm\
[2] /[to him]\ for him
[3] ferverous /large-minded\