SOURCE: "The Personal Lyric Disguised: Fernando Pessoa's Mensagem," in Luso-Brasilian Review, Summer, 1976, pp. 90-9.

In the following excerpt, Barrow examines the dramatic and lyric elements of Mensagem, considered to be Pessoa's most significant work.

The author of Mensagem was preoccupied with the future of Portugal and conscious of her spiritual and historical past. In a spirit of messianism he associated himself in 1912 with the movement Renascença Portuguesa and wrote an essay concerning "A Nova Poesia Portuguesa Sociològicamente Considerada" for A Águia, the principal organ of this movement. Eight years later, the assassination of Sidonio Paes, the President of Portugal, was the subject of a long ode by the poet, "À Memória do President Rei Sidónio Paes." In this poem the late President is identified with King Sebastian and his return is expected at some future date. It is not, however, the political present which attracts...