Francisco Matos Paoli o el canto apofático del poeta-ave

Abstract

This article studies the mythopoetic coordinates of Canto de la locura (1962), by Francisco Matos Paoli. It presents the different mutations of the lyrical voice, which, through the bird-poets schizophrenic language-and from the rhetorical and experience- based antithesis of captivity-sings to freedom. It analyzes the poetic device of apophasis, whose continuous self-denial reveals the essence of poetry. In the encounter or 'misencounter' with that which the voice conceives as essence -God- , madness acts as a passage to the mythical-or mystical-realm from where the song departs and towards which it strives. Bonded to Julio Cortázar's and Octavio Paz's poetic theories, Matos Paoli's poetics illuminates his poetry in the moment of mystical-or mythical-apprehension, through which the bird-poet achieves what turns out to be his pulse of life in freedom.