SOURCE: "This World and Beyond: Mário de Sá-Carneiro's Struggle for Perfection," in Hispania, Vol. 59, No. 2, May, 1976, pp. 258-67.

In the following essay, Megenney says that Sá-Carneiro 's poetry reflects his search for the ideal in a tortured, tumultuous universe.

Portugal has produced many outstanding poets over the centuries. One of the most gifted of the twentieth century was Mário de Sá-Carneiro, who, with Fernando Pessoa, represents the apex of the Modernist movement in Portugal—a movement which sprang from a general feeling of anguish present during the turn of the century in Europe and in most of the world. Other writers who formed part of the Portuguese Modernist current and who emphasized notes of despair, solitude, and anxiety in their poetry include Antônio Botto, José Régio, Adolfo Casais Monteiro, and Miguel Torga. This movement in Portugal is paralleled chronologically and thematically...