Books of Poetry

Vinicius occupies a singular place in the history of Brazilian poetry. One of the leading names in the rising generation of 1930s, a period soon after the modernist movement, his poetry, consisted of clear writing and fluent language, quickly snatched his contemporaries.

After writing his first books, Vinicius remained as one of the leading poets of Brazil, publishing frequently until the 1950s. Thereafter, his publishing production becomes sparser. That is when he transfers his perfect prosody poetry and intense subjectivity to the lyrics of popular music. By working fiercely as a composer he articulates, in a unique and definite way, the high poetic quality of his verses to the renewal of the Brazilian music production of his time.

Vinicius’s poetry became, since then, a kind of fusion between his vast literary culture and the direct application of his private poetic in verses that have become popular sayings or personal odes modeled in the lives of his readers. Over time, this “poetry of everybody” moves from the metaphysical and mystical space of his first books to the lyrical incorporation of the world and its most striking aspects.
 

Violence, war, poverty, lost love, betrayed, conquered or consumed, the hustle and bustle of the cities and the serenity of the fields, death, nature, solitude, friendships, Rio de Janeiro, cinema, plastic arts and the poetry itself were standing muses in his writing. The alternating use between fixed forms, such as the sonnet and free verse, did not hinder in any way the reading of his work and the growing popularity among the general public.