Caia eu tembem, sem esperanca,
Porém tranquilo,
Inda, ao cahir, vibrando a lança,
Em prol de Estylo![1]
The Poesias[2] upon which Bilac’s fame rests constitute but a book of average size, and consist of the following divisions: Panoplias (Panoplies); Via Lactea (The Milky Way); Sarças de Fogo (Fire-Brambles); Alma Inquieta (Restless Soul); As Viagens (Voyages); O Caçador de Esmeraldas (The Emerald-Hunter).
The inspiration of the panoplies derives as much from the past as from the present; there is verbal coruscation aplenty,—an admirable sense of colour, imagery, fertility, symbol. Even when reading the Iliad, Bilac sees in it chiefly a poem of love:
Mais que as armas, porém, mais que a batalha,
Mais que os incendios, brilha o amor que ateia
O odio e entre os povos a discordia espalha: