Light and shadow, worm and star: aesthetic and social contrasts in the poetics of Pedro Kilkerry

Abstract

This article presents a critical-interpretive analysis of the poem "O Verme e a Estrela" ("The Worm and the Star") by Pedro Kilkerry, a poet posthumously recognized as one of the most original voices of Brazilian Symbolism, especially after the publication of ReVisão de Kilkerry by Augusto de Campos (1985). The study examines the use of octosyllabic verses, common in Hispanic and French songbooks, which lend musicality to the poem, as discussed by Rogério Chociay (1974). Alternating rhymes enhance the visual and sonic contrast between two central metaphors: the worm, representing a degraded and marginalized lyrical self, and the star, an idealized and distant figure. The colloquial and ironic language employed by the lyrical voice offers a distinctive interpretative key. The analysis also explores the worm’s poetic body as a symbol of resistance and a space marked by social and racial exclusion. In this way, the worm becomes a metaphor for criticizing the discourse of non-belonging, exposing the structural violence embedded in modern national identity. The imagistic interplay between worm and star intensifies the poem’s musicality and poetic synthesis, as proposed by Viktor Chklovski (1976). Finally, drawing on Silviano Santiago (2000), the article discusses how love in the poem is shaped by tensions of class, race, gender, and identity.