The Mad Fiddler in the context of Pessoa's correspondence

Abstract

Among the hundreds of English poems written by Fernando Pessoa during his lifetime, the collection entitled The Mad Fiddler plays a vital role. In a manner unique to the circumstances of this particular body of poems, The Mad Fiddler sheds light on its own value while refracting light as well on various aspects of Pessoa's practice at the earliest stages of an emergent modernism. It is the surprising significance of these English poems for Pessoa himself in the light of is correspondence to British publishers and editors during the period 1912-1917 that will be the focus of this paper.

Keywords

• Pessoa, Fernando
• English poetry
• Modernism (Aesthetics)
• Literary tradition
• Mad Fiddler
• Modernismo
• Poesia inglesa
• Tradição literária