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Pessoa in English

A book of selected poems from Shearsman. Search, the second of two English language personas, seems to just write doggerel, but his auto-epitaph is interesting (the date is missing), especially in those terms: quoting from the 4th and 49th-51st lines from that 57 line poem

He filled with madness many a song…

But let him lie at peace for ever
Far from the eyes and mouths of men
And from what him from them did sever.

p100-101

The phrasing is unusual, as in all these poems (Frazer mentions Pessoa’s Elizabethan early influences).

The later (1924-1933) poems included here seem like mature work, though it’s not immediately clear why. Perhaps he can express his curiosity more clearly.