How poetic can prose be? A reading through Tempo e Poesia

Abstract

According to Eduardo Lourenço, poetry can only be understood from poetry. For this reason, Lourenço embarked on an essayistic critique of poetry that did not merely express a judgement on both the work and the poet, but which also included the subject of the poem itself. To this end, he metaphysically problematised poetry as a means of understanding man. Contrasting the poetic with the prosaic, he conceived poetry as the most suitable language for naming human reality, considering that Man cannot be an object of knowledge for himself like others. This is due to a «silence», an «unpronounceability» of his condition, which cannot be spoken without the risk of being ontologically conditioned or reduced. If poetry is the language best suited to this naming, as it is figurative and latent, prose is not, as it describes and is patent. However, poetry and prose are two facets of language and, when Lourenço intends to conceive essays, in his own words, of «critical-poetry» or «poetical-critique», does he admit the possibility of prose being poetic? We will try to answer this question by reading a series of essays collected in Tempo e Poesia, in which Lourenço reflects on and distinguishes between the concepts of poetry and prose. We will begin with Eduardo Lourenço’s understanding of poetry, then distinguishing the poetic from the prosaic, in order to analyse the notion of «poetical-critique» and conclude with an appraisal of «poetic prose».