The aesthetics of nature: fruit in the work of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Abstract

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen's poetry of the real develops around some elements that characterize the writer's literary universe: the sea, the garden, the house, the classical art and the night landscapes. The amazement before the beauty of the visible, brings human beings closer to nature and God. This paper will focus on Sophia’s quotes of fruits whithin her poetic and narrative work. In her writing, fruits can be linked to her childhood memories; it can show a straightforward example of Nature’s beauty; or it can establish metaphors based on isotopies shared with objects belonging to other semantic fields. In the western tradition some fruits, including apples, are a symbol of temptation and lust, whereas in Sophia’s writing they are trigger reconnection with the ancestors and are full of literary dignity.