The cultivation of the word in “Poética rural”, by Marilza Ribeiro

Abstract

In this paper we investigate how the poem “Poética Rural”, by Marilza Ribeiro, discusses the process of writing poetry. The poem is constituted as a metalinguistic exercise, wherein the labor of poetic creation is presented through the metaphor of rural labor. Through the analysis of the formal aspects that ascribe meaning to the text and with the aid of literary semiotics, we demonstrate how the poem reflects on the concepts of death of the author, the polysemy of poetic language and literature as a cheat on language; all these concepts are crucial in French post-structuralism. In the analyzed verses, the lyrical self plays with language and elaborate poetic language by agricultural activities.