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To be a Poet

Florbela Espanca

The poem under consideration is a profound meditation on the nature of being a poet,
intertwining existential intensity, creative fervor, and the all-consuming force of love.
Through vivid metaphors, paradoxes, and highly charged imagery, the poet defines the poetic
identity as one that is simultaneously exalted, tormented, and supremely sensitive. The poem
also bridges the personal and the universal, showing that the act of loving and the act of
creating poetry are inextricably linked, both requiring a heightened awareness of life’s beauty
and pain.

The opening lines, “To be a poet is to be taller, to be larger / Than men. To bite like others
kiss,” immediately establish the poet as a figure who transcends ordinary human experience.
Height and largeness here do not refer to physical dimensions but to the expansiveness of
consciousness and perception. The poet experiences the world with heightened sensitivity,
seeing and feeling more intensely than ordinary individuals. The paradoxical phrase “to bite
like others kiss” suggests that the poet’s engagement with life is intense, sometimes painful,
and even destructive in its passion. Whereas a kiss conveys tenderness, the bite evokes
intensity and immediacy, indicating that the poet’s perception and expression carry a sharper,
more visceral quality.

The poem further develops this paradoxical identity: “It is to be a beggar and to give like you
are king / of the kingdom of brief and ever-lasting pain.” The poet exists in a tension between
humility and grandeur. While materially or socially a “beggar,” spiritually and emotionally,
the poet is generous and sovereign, capable of giving profound experiences to the world. The
“kingdom of brief and ever-lasting pain” captures the essence of the poetic condition:
suffering, whether fleeting or eternal, is inseparable from creativity. Pain is not merely a
byproduct of life but a necessary ingredient of artistic vision. The poet’s capacity to transform
suffering into art exemplifies the paradoxical richness of poetic life, where vulnerability and
power coexist.

This intensity of experience extends into desire and longing: “It is to have a thousand wishes,
splendor / And not even know what you desire.” Here, the poet is depicted as restless, driven
by countless aspirations yet simultaneously uncertain about their object. This ineffable
yearning reflects the elusive nature of inspiration and the poet’s continual search for meaning.
Such longing aligns with the Romantic conception of the poet as a seeker of the sublime,
whose desires transcend ordinary comprehension. The poet’s consciousness is a site of both
abundance and ambiguity, echoing the infinite possibilities and uncertainties of human
experience.

The metaphors of light and flight further illuminate the poet’s inner state: “It is to have here
inside a star, a flame” and “It is to have the condor’s talons and wings.” The star and flame
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symbolize creativity, insight, and spiritual illumination, suggesting that the poet carries within
a source of energy and vision that is both radiant and guiding. Similarly, the condor, a bird
that soars high with strength and precision, represents freedom, power, and elevated
perception. These images convey the dual nature of the poet: one who transcends ordinary
existence yet remains anchored in intense emotional and physical experiences, capable of
grasping life with talons as well as wings.

Hunger and thirst, introduced in the lines “It is to be hungry, to thirst for the infinite,”
reinforce the existential dimension of poetic identity. The poet’s desires are boundless,
unquenched by material satisfaction or temporal pleasure. This yearning is simultaneously
intellectual, spiritual, and emotional, embodying the poet’s pursuit of the infinite. By
emphasizing the insatiability of the poetic spirit, the poem situates the poet as a liminal
figure, caught between the finite world and the infinite possibilities of imagination and
insight.

The imagery of “gold and satin mornings like an antique helmet” and the claim that it is “to
condense the world into a single cry” extend this portrayal. The mornings evoke richness,
splendor, and the delicate beauty of life, while the “antique helmet” introduces a note of
protection and struggle, hinting at the cost of such heightened awareness. Condensing the
world into a single cry underscores the poet’s ability to distill vast experiences into
concentrated, powerful expression. Poetry becomes an act of translation, rendering the
complexity of existence into a form that communicates both beauty and intensity to others.

The final lines transition from a general meditation on poetic life to a deeply personal
declaration of love: “And it is to love you, even so, desperately. / You are the soul, the blood,
and the life in me / And I tell it to everyone through my song.” Here, the beloved becomes
the embodiment of life itself, inseparable from the poet’s existence. Love, like poetry, is
intense, all-consuming, and transformative. The act of expressing this love through “song”
symbolizes the fusion of personal passion and artistic creation. The poem suggests that love
and poetry are mutually reinforcing; both demand vulnerability, courage, and a willingness to
experience life in its totality.

Thematically, the poem explores the nature of poetic identity, existential longing, and the
inseparability of love and creation. The poet is depicted as a paradoxical figure—humble yet
sovereign, tender yet fierce, yearning yet fulfilled. Paradox pervades the poem, reflecting the
poet’s heightened awareness of life’s contradictions and complexities. Imagery of light, flight,
and hunger underscores both spiritual and creative aspirations, situating the poet in a liminal
space between human limitations and transcendent possibilities.

The poem resonates with literary traditions spanning Romanticism and modernist
sensibilities. Like Wordsworth, Keats, or Shelley, the poet is a visionary, attuned to beauty,
suffering, and the sublime. The intensity of romantic love recalls Pablo Neruda, whose odes
combine passion with existential reflection. At the same time, the poet’s hunger for the
infinite echoes mystical traditions, such as the works of Rumi or St. John of the Cross, where
spiritual and personal longing converge.
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In conclusion, the poem offers a rich, layered meditation on what it means to be a poet and to
love. The poet is elevated yet vulnerable, experiencing life with unparalleled intensity and
translating that experience into art. Love and poetry emerge as intertwined forces, both
demanding and rewarding, sustaining the poet’s vision and giving form to the otherwise
ineffable experiences of life. Through vivid metaphors, paradoxical imagery, and existential
depth, the poem celebrates the transformative power of poetic existence and the boundless
potential of human passion.

The Poetic Self and Intertextual Dialogues in the Poem

The poem under study is a profound exploration of poetic identity, existential intensity, and
passionate love. Its imagery, metaphors, and paradoxes position the poet as a figure
simultaneously exalted, tormented, and deeply sensitive. By reading the poem intertextually,
one can trace resonances with Romantic, Modernist, mystical, and love poetry traditions,
highlighting the poem’s engagement with a broader literary heritage.

1. Romantic Echoes: Vision, Sensitivity, and Transcendence​

From the opening lines, “To be a poet is to be taller, to be larger / Than men. To bite like
others kiss,” the poet’s consciousness is depicted as expansive and heightened, recalling the
Romantic vision of the poet as a seer. Percy Bysshe Shelley, in A Defence of Poetry,
emphasizes the poet’s ability to perceive and communicate truths beyond ordinary human
understanding. Similarly, John Keats in Ode to a Nightingale portrays the poet as sensitive
yet heroic, experiencing life’s beauty and pain intensely. The poem’s paradoxical
imagery—“to bite like others kiss”—mirrors Romanticism’s fascination with intensity,
extremes of emotion, and the blending of pleasure and pain as part of a heightened
engagement with life.

2. Modernist Resonances: Compression, Fragmentation, and Existential Longing​

The poem’s focus on existential yearning and the distillation of complex experience into
precise expression connects it to Modernist techniques. Lines like “It is to condense the world
into a single cry” recall the imagist aesthetic of Ezra Pound, where vivid, precise imagery
communicates concentrated emotional and intellectual experiences. The restless uncertainty
of desire—“to have a thousand wishes… / And not even know what you desire”—echoes
Virginia Woolf’s depiction of fragmented consciousness in To the Lighthouse, where
characters’ inner yearnings remain elusive. Similarly, T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land conveys
the Modernist preoccupation with dislocation, multiplicity, and the challenge of rendering
profound experiences in language.

3. Mystical Intertexts: Hunger, Thirst, and Spiritual Longing​

Hunger and thirst for the infinite—“It is to be hungry, to thirst for the infinite”—situate the
poet within a mystical tradition. This yearning parallels Rumi’s spiritual poetry, where the
soul longs for union with the divine, and St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, in
which longing and suffering lead to illumination. The metaphors of internal fire—“to have
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here inside a star, a flame”—further align the poet with mystical figures whose creative
energy is inseparable from spiritual insight. In this context, poetic and spiritual aspirations are
intertwined, emphasizing the poet’s pursuit of the infinite within the finite constraints of
human existence.

4. Love Poetry: Passion as Creative Force​

The concluding lines—“And it is to love you, even so, desperately. / You are the soul, the
blood, and the life in me / And I tell it to everyone through my song”—position love as
inseparable from poetic expression. The intensity of the speaker’s passion recalls Pablo
Neruda’s odes, where love becomes an expansive, elemental force, and Rainer Maria Rilke’s
Duino Elegies, where love is both spiritual and transformative. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116
similarly presents love as enduring and foundational to life, echoing the poem’s framing of
the beloved as “the soul, the blood, and the life.” Here, the act of loving fuels creativity,
reinforcing the Romantic and mystical idea that human emotion is a conduit to transcendence.

Conclusion​
Through paradoxical imagery, heightened emotional intensity, and intertextual resonances,
the poem presents the poet as a figure who bridges human experience, artistic creation, and
spiritual aspiration. Romanticism informs the poet’s vision and sensitivity, Modernism shapes
the expression of desire and existential uncertainty, mysticism imbues the work with hunger
for the infinite, and love poetry situates passion as the lifeblood of creation. The poem thus
exists in dialogue with literary traditions across time and space, demonstrating that poetic
identity, human longing, and the act of loving are intertwined in both personal and universal
dimensions.

A Line-by-Line Intertextual Analysis of the Poem

1. “To be a poet is to be taller, to be larger / Than men. To bite like others kiss.”

●​ The poet is positioned as a visionary figure, transcending ordinary human experience.​

●​ Romanticism: Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry asserts that poets perceive and

communicate truths beyond common understanding. Wordsworth’s concept of the
poet as “a man speaking to men” also emphasizes heightened perception and moral
vision.​

●​ Modernism: The intensity of sensation and paradox—“to bite like others

kiss”—echoes T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, where extreme contrasts capture the
dissonance of modern life.​

●​ Love Poetry: The “bite” can be linked to Neruda’s sensual odes, where love and
desire are corporeal yet transcendent.​
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2. “It is to be a beggar and to give like you are king / of the kingdom of brief and ever-lasting
pain.”

●​ The paradox of humility and grandeur situates the poet in a liminal space between
suffering and sovereignty.​

●​ Romanticism: Keats in Ode to a Nightingale and Byron in Childe Harold’s

Pilgrimage portray the poet as sensitive yet heroic, often at odds with the world.​

●​ Mysticism: Job’s suffering in the Bible illustrates how pain enables wisdom and
spiritual insight, paralleling the poet’s “ever-lasting pain.”​

●​ Modernist Resonance: The duality of abundance and lack mirrors Woolf’s and Eliot’s
exploration of fragmented consciousness.​

3. “It is to have a thousand wishes, splendor / And not even know what you desire.”

●​ Expresses restlessness, infinite aspiration, and the ineffable nature of desire.​

●​ Romanticism: Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria describes the “esemplastic”

imagination that synthesizes vast and varied experiences into unified creative vision.​

●​ Modernism: Woolf’s depiction of inner life in To the Lighthouse and Joyce’s A

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man captures the multiplicity and ambiguity of
human desire.​

4. “It is to have here inside a star, a flame.”

●​ Symbolizes the inner fire of inspiration, creativity, and spiritual illumination.​

●​ Romanticism: Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience treats inner light as divine
and transformative.​

●​ Mysticism: Rumi’s poetry and St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul portray
the soul’s fire as a divine presence within.​

5. “It is to have the condor’s talons and wings.”

●​ Depicts freedom, strength, and elevated perception.​

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●​ Romanticism: Whitman’s Leaves of Grass celebrates expansive freedom and

engagement with the world.​

●​ Modernism: The condor’s dual power—talons for grasping, wings for

soaring—parallels imagist precision, such as in Pound’s In a Station of the Metro,
where condensed imagery conveys both detail and expansiveness.​

6. “It is to be hungry, to thirst for the infinite.”

●​ Represents unquenchable existential, spiritual, and creative longing.​

●​ Mysticism: Echoes Rumi’s spiritual longing for union with the divine and Mirabai’s
devotional hunger.​

●​ Romanticism: The Romantic poet, like Keats or Shelley, constantly pursues the
infinite and the sublime.​

7. “The gold and satin mornings like an antique helmet; / It is to condense the world into a
single cry.”

●​ Combines splendor with struggle, suggesting the cost and craft of poetic perception.​

●​ Romanticism: Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn blends beauty and mortality, exploring
timelessness within finite forms.​

●​ Modernism: Imagist and Symbolist techniques—Pound and Eliot—show how vast

experience can be compressed into concentrated expression.​

8. “And it is to love you, even so, desperately.”

●​ Introduces passionate, personal love as inseparable from poetic expression.​

●​ Love Poetry: Neruda’s 100 Love Sonnets and Rilke’s Duino Elegies link love to
creative and existential purpose.​

●​ Shakespearean Intertext: Sonnet 116 presents love as enduring and life-defining,

echoing the poem’s depiction of love as foundational.

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9. “You are the soul, the blood, and the life in me / And I tell it to everyone through my
song.”

●​ The beloved embodies the totality of existence; poetry becomes a medium to

communicate love and life.​

●​ Romanticism: Keats and Shelley view love and imagination as life-affirming,

transformative forces.​

●​ Mysticism: The fusion of personal and universal echoes mystical traditions, where
devotion and expression transcend the self.​

●​ Modernist Resonance: Like Eliot or Pound, the poet’s song becomes a medium
through which private experience is universalized.​

Conclusion​
Through line-by-line intertextuality, the poem reveals itself as a dialogue with Romantic,
Modernist, mystical, and love poetry traditions. Romanticism informs the poet’s visionary
and emotional sensitivity; Modernism shapes the depiction of fragmented consciousness,
existential longing, and compressed imagery; mysticism infuses the work with hunger for the
infinite; and love poetry situates desire as the creative life-force. Each line resonates with
literary predecessors, showing that the poet’s existence—marked by paradox, intensity, and
devotion—is both a continuation of and a conversation with literary history. The poem
positions poetic life, existential yearning, and passionate love within an ongoing intertextual
continuum, bridging cultures, epochs, and aesthetic forms.

1. Portuguese Literary Tradition: Passion and Poetry

The poem’s intense emotionality, passionate love, and exaltation of the poet’s vision resonate
strongly with Portuguese poetic traditions, especially the work of Fernando Pessoa, one of
Portugal’s greatest poets. Pessoa often explored the multiplicity of self (through his
heteronyms), existential longing, and the tension between inner life and outer
expression—much like the poem you shared:

●​ The poem’s paradoxes (“beggar and king,” “to bite like others kiss”) mirror Pessoa’s
use of heteronyms to express conflicting, extreme facets of identity.​

●​ The inner fire, thirst for the infinite, and creative urgency echo Pessoa’s mystical and
existential concerns in poems such as Mensagem and his Poems of Álvaro de Campos.​
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2. Love and Sensuality in Portuguese Poetry

The personal and passionate dimension of the poem (“And it is to love you, even so,
desperately”) connects with the tradition of Portuguese love poetry, from the lyrical intensity
of the medieval Cantigas de Amor to the modern sensuality of Pessoa and other 20th-century
poets. Portuguese poetry often blends:

●​ Emotional intensity (desire, longing, melancholy)​

●​ Philosophical reflection on existence​

●​ Symbolic and metaphoric richness​

The poem’s celebration of love as a creative and life-giving force reflects these traditions.

3. Iberian Mysticism and Saudades

The poem’s existential hunger, thirst for the infinite, and paradoxical tension also relate to
Iberian mystical and existential thought, particularly the Portuguese concept of saudade—a
profound, melancholic longing for something unattainable.

●​ “Hunger, thirst for the infinite” resonates with saudade, which is central in Portuguese
literature (from the mystic poetry of Santa Teresa de Jesus adapted in Portugal to the
modern works of Pessoa and Sophia de Mello Breyner).​

●​ The poet’s internal flame, star, or condor wings can be read as metaphors for the
soul’s striving beyond the limits of life, similar to the spiritual and emotional depths
expressed in Portuguese mystical poetry.​

4. Cultural and Aesthetic Relevance

●​ The poem’s fusion of personal love, poetic vocation, and existential intensity aligns
with the Portuguese literary aesthetic of lyrical introspection, where the poet is both
observer and participant, navigating the tensions between life, love, and the infinite.​

●​ Its rich metaphors and symbolic imagery can be compared to Portuguese Symbolist
and Modernist poetry, which often emphasizes the interplay between internal
experience and universal truth.​

Conclusion
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The poem’s relevance to Portuguese literature lies in its emotional intensity, metaphoric
richness, existential depth, and fusion of love and poetic vocation. It resonates with the works
of Fernando Pessoa, the lyrical tradition of Cantigas de Amor, and the mysticism-infused
melancholy of saudade. Like Portuguese poetry, it blends the personal and the universal, the
corporeal and the spiritual, positioning the poet as a liminal figure navigating both inner and
outer worlds.