Before the image, a poem: on “The ass and the ox in the nativity scene” by João Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze five of the 26 poems that comprises a series entitled “The Ass and the Ox in the Nativity Scene” and also the first paragraph of the text “Uns inhos engenheiros”, all of them published in Ave Palavra, a posthumous book by João Guimarães Rosa. The poems were inspired in Medieval and Renaissance paintings, which have the ass and the ox in the Nativity scene as their main theme. The aforementioned texts were analyzed considering their metric, rhythmic and sound patterns and their semantic and meaning structures in order to deepen the understanding of the poetic works of the writer, be it in the literary production formally perceived as poetry, be it in his prose, imbued with poetry.