SOURCE: Rosenthal, David H. “Unpredictable Passions.” New York Times Book Review (13 December 1987): 32-3.

In the following review of two books by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and Drummond's Travelling in the Family, Rosenthal notes Drummond's sense of irony, contemplative nature, and colorful use of poetic language.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-87) and Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) rank among the foremost poets of our century, yet neither has received much recognition in the United States. It is tough being an author whose native language is deemed “minor.” Still, one can't grumble, for here we have a generous selection of each. Perhaps the gods deliberately deferred this pleasure, knowing that after the thin gruel of much recent North American verse, we would need something robust. …

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Carlos Drummond de Andrade, who died this year, is Brazil's most famous 20th-century poet. His work is more transparent than Pessoa's, definitely not the expression of a...