Archaeology of echoes: the Pessoa-Campos-Whitman relations in “Saudação a Álvaro de Campos”, by Raquel Nobre Guerra

Abstract

This article analyzes the poem “Saudação a Álvaro de Campos”, by the Portuguese poet Raquel Nobre Guerra, with the aim of identifying and discussing the dialogues established between this poet and the binomial Fernando Pessoa-Álvaro de Campos, and between these and the Ameri­can modernist poet Walt Whitman. Her reading about the poetic rela­tionships between Pessoa, Campos and Whitman leads Raquel Nobre Guerra to reflect about her own place, in contemporary times, within this panorama crossed by different conceptions of tradition, legacy and affil­iation. In this context, as well as the poem, this analysis includes notes made by Fernando Pessoa, which today have archival and documenta­ry value, showing his path of contact, distancing and redirecting Walt Whitman’s poetics within his orthonymous and heteronymous works.