DRUMMOND O CARNAVALESCO:

THE "UNARCHITECTED ARCHITECTURES" OF CLARO ENIGMA

Abstract

In this article, I will argue that the title of the book "Claro enigma" (1951) by Carlos Drummond de Andrade was likely taken from a poem by Antônio Francisco Soares, a military poet, builder of allegorical cars, and precursor of carnival creators. After examining Soares' poem (1786) dedicated to Vice-King D. Luiz de Vasconcelos, I will analyze the carnival and polyphonic elements observable in the poems of "Claro enigma." These elements include the use of soliloquy as a mode of expression for the lyrical self, the recurring remembrance of the poetic tradition of the Portuguese language, the "dethronement ritual" of the aesthetic program of social poetry, the reiterated use of biunivocal images, narratives of the "experimental fantastic," the sadness as an indelible mark of the Brazilian people, and the publicist-journalistic character of the compositions. Most of the poems in "Claro enigma" were previously published in newspapers of the time before being compiled into a book, which emphasizes their publicist, reactive, and circumstantial nature. Finally, I will argue that "Claro enigma" was not a book conceived in advance, nor was it rigorously structured, but rather it was improvised, without the prefiguration of a defined thematic framework.