Murilo Mendes, Francis Ponge and the prose poem

Abstract

The present paper aims to discuss the configuration of the prose poem both in the works of Murilo Mendes’ Poliedro (1972) and Francis Ponge’s Le parti pris des choses (1942). From the beginning, the similarity between both works is explained by the impulse of focusing on daily objects and also the diverse positioning of the lyrical subjects in Murilo Mendes (less objective) and Francis Ponge (more objective) when they establish a relation with the simple things they wish to marvel. In accordance, the form of the prose poem helps to build this specific and singular view of the objects. Using this background to dialogue with the critical scholarly resources on both writers, we briefly analyse some poems and set out to reflect on the prose poem, which holds the works of the Brazilian and the French poets open to comparison.