Study of mythopoetic primitivism in a brief poem by mario de andrade

Abstract

The weapon of poetry turns against natural things and wounds or murders them... to construct something that is not a copy of "nature" and yet possesses substance of its own is a feat which presupposes nothing less than genius. Jose Ortega y Gassed The literary ballad, an increasingly popular genre this century, consciously attempts to emulate the mythic and primitive aspects of the orally transmitted folk ballad. "A Serra do Rola-MOca" by Mario de Andrade masterfully exemplifies the consummate depth and brilliance that the modern folk ballad is capable of attaining. Upon superficial analysis this work appears to be nothing more than a simple folk narrative, but in essence it emxrcpasses a contemporary mytho-poetic vision of reality rooted in deep psychic and primal elements. This primal vision is subliminally accessable and interpretable only in terms of a psychological analysis of the subject matter. In the work at hand, Andrade creates a personal mythology, one which remains poignantly faithful to the common font of animistic primitivism common to all mythologies.