Drummond and the social poetry

Abstract

In the first half of the 1940s, the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade assumed a rare political engagement in his trajectory, aligned with leftist ideals and international communism. This attitude was reflected both in his professional conduct, as an employee at the Ministry of Education and Health, and in his poetic references. In this article some aspects of his political performance are presented, and the concept of “social poetry” is analyzed, as understood by Drummond himself, based on texts that he published in the press of the time. This genre of poetry, of which he became a great enthusiast and defender, would directly influence the invoice of his most engaged book, A rosa do povo, published in 1945.