Sonnet : Fernando Pessoa

When I do think my meanest line shall be
More in Time's use than my creating whole,
That future eyes more clearly shall feel me
in this inked page than in my direct soul;
When I conjecture put to make me seeing
Good readers of me in some aftertime,
Thankful to some idea of my being
That doth not even my with gone true soul rime;
An anger at the essence of the world,
That makes this thus, or thinkable this wise,
Takes my soul by the throat and makes it hurled
In nightly horrors of despaired surmise,
And I become the mere sense of a rage
That lacks the very words whose waste might'suage.
~ Fernando Pessoa (from 35 Sonnets)

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (13 June 1888-30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language,

Image source from one of Pessoa’ ‘s book covers.