Versiprosa, by Carlos Drummond de Andrade: Poem-Chronicles or a hybrid genre?

Abstract

This article addresses Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s poetic production in his book Versiprosa (1967), which includes, in poetic form, the short accounts and reflections about everyday life he wrote for the Rio de Janeiro newspapers Correio da Manhã and Jornal do Brazill, as well as for the magazine Mundo Ilustrado. The volume includes 102 texts written between 1954 and 1970.  We reckon that Andrade distinguished himself in the literary and journalistic milieu both as a poet and as a teller of accounts, narrowing the boundaries between prose and poetry as literary genres. Through unique and multifaceted language, his writing reveals conflicts occurring in the sociohistorical and cultural context he lived in, which enables him to provide evidence of a conflict between the “self” and the world.