ITINERARY OF EVASION IN THE POETRY OF VINICIUS DE MORAES

Abstract

This article offers a critical reading of Vinicius de Moraes’ poetry through the lens of evasion, understood as an impulse toward escape, transcendence, or existential displacement. By examining eight of his published books, the study identifies how this movement unfolds in different ways throughout his work, sometimes associated with religious longing and the desire for redemption, at other times connected to death, reverie, or the search for an alternative space in which the lyrical subject might exist more fully. The analysis focuses particularly on the poems “Judeu errante,” “A partida,” and “Balada das duas mocinhas de Botafogo,” where evasion appears respectively as eternal wandering, as a poetic staging of one’s own death, and as a tragic solution to social suffering. The essay establishes meaningful dialogues with Manuel Bandeira and Álvares de Azevedo, highlighting both affinities and contrasts in their approaches to escaping reality. In Bandeira, evasion takes the form of an imagined, liberating space; in Azevedo, death is reimagined as the promise of another life; in Vinicius, however, evasion oscillates between transcendence, lucidity, irony, and resignation. Ultimately, the article argues that evasion is not merely a recurring theme in Vinicius de Moraes’ poetry, but a structuring principle of his lyrical imagination, situating his work within a broader Brazilian literary tradition that transforms escape into both an aesthetic strategy and an existential gesture.