"Rio abaixo" - Poema de Olavo Bilac

Winslow Homer (American landscape painter and illustrator, 1836–1910),
"The Blue Boat', 1892, Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

["The Blue Boat" is a work by Winslow Homer done in his favorite medium of watercolor, measuring about 15.1 by 21.5 inches. It is an outdoor scene depicting 2 men fishing from a small blue canoe. It is a work that is alive with color and motion, and the artist's perspective of a viewer some distance away allows for the addition of rich detail for the sky, the water, and the land.
The watercolor work was completed in 1892. It is thus a later product of his long career in naturalism, done after he had earned a reputation as one of the great American painters.
As an independent and successful artist, Homer painted the subjects of his choice. He lived near the sea for most of the latter half of his life, and many of his major works reflect his lifelong interest in related topics such as the sea, beaches, boats, and bathers.] (daqui)

 

Rio Abaixo


Treme o rio, a rolar, de vaga em vaga...
Quase noite. Ao sabor do curso lento
Da água, que as margens em redor alaga,
Seguimos. Curva os bambuais o vento.

Vivo, há pouco, de púrpura, sangrento,
Desmaia agora o Ocaso. A noite apaga
A derradeira luz do firmamento...
Rola o rio, a tremer, de vaga em vaga.

Um silêncio tristíssimo por tudo
Se espalha. Mas a lua lentamente
Surge na fímbria do horizonte mudo:

E o seu reflexo pálido, embebido
Como um gládio de prata na corrente,
Rasga o seio do rio adormecido.


Olavo Bilac, in "Poesias, 1884/1887", 1ª. ed. 1888
(Inclui Panóplias - Via-Láctea - Sarças de fogo),
Poema integrante da série Sarças de Fogo.