[9] The first dove, awakened, flies off, then another and another. Finally they leave the cote by tens, as soon as the fresh, red, dawn appears. And at evening, when the bitter north-wind blows, fluttering their wings and shaking their feathers, they all return to the cote in a flock. So, from our hearts, where they burgeon, our dreams, one by one, depart in flight like the doves from the cote. They spread their wings in the azure of youth, and fly off.… But the doves return to the dovecote, while our dreams return nevermore. [10] I see that everything loves. And I, I alone, love not. This soil I tread loves,--the tree against which I lean, this gentle zephyr that fans my cheek,--these wings that flutter in the air,--this foliage,--the beasts who, in rut, leave their wild lairs to gaze upon the light that magnetizes them,--the crags of the desert,--the river, the forest, the tree-trunks, the children, the bird, the leaf, the flower, the fruit, the branch.… And I alone love not! I alone love not! I alone love not! [11] Oh, nature! O pure, piteous mother! oh, cruel, implacable assassin! Hand that proffers both poison and balm, and blends smiles with tears. The cradle, where the infant opens her tiny mouth to smile, is the miniature, the vague image of a coffin,--the living germ of a frightful end! Eternal contrast. Birds twittering upon tombs … flowers floating upon the surface of ugly, putrid waters.… Sadness walks at the side of joy.… And this your bosom, wherein night is born, is the selfsame bosom whence is born the day.… [12] See the chapter devoted to him in Part Two of this book. [13] See Part Two for a special chapter on Machado de Assis. [14] See, for a good study of Emilio de Menezes, Elysio de Carvalho’s _As Modernas Correntes Esthéticas na Literatura Braziléira_. Rio, 1907. Pp. 62-74. [15] See Part Two for chapters on Graça Aranha, Monteiro Lobato, Euclydes da Cunha and Coelho Netto. PART II REPRESENTATIVE PERSONALITIES I CASTRO ALVES During the last half of the month of February, 1868, two admirable letters were exchanged by a pair of notable men, in which both discerned the budding fame of a twenty-year-old poet. The two notables were José de Alencar, chief novelist of the “Indianist” school, and Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, not yet at the height of his career. The poet was Castro Alves. His real “discoverer” was the first of these two authors, who sent him from Tijuca to Machado de Assis at Rio de Janeiro. In his letter of the 18th of February, José de Alencar wrote (I quote only salient passages): “Yesterday I received a visit from a poet. “Rio de Janeiro does not yet know him; in a very short while all Brazil will know him. It is understood, of course, that I speak of that Brazil which feels; with the heart and not with the rest. “Sr. Castro Alves is a guest of this great city, for but a few days. He is going to São Paulo to finish the course that he began at Olinda.