There was a stone in the middle of the path (or there was a stone in the middle of the road) is the way we remember the poem In the Middle of the Road It was published in 1928 in the journal Revista de Antropofagia. These verses became so famous that until today there are many analyses about it, despite the apparent simplicity of this poetic text. So, check out our post to learn more!

Poem Stone in the Way by Drummond

To better understand this text by Drummond, let's first check the poem in its entirety.

In the Middle of the Road

Author: Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902 - 1987)

In the middle of the path there was a rock

There was a stone in the middle of the path

There was a stone

In the middle of the path there was a rock

I will never forget this event

In the life of my retinas so tired

I will never forget that in the middle of the road

There was a stone

There was a stone in the middle of the path

In the middle of the path there was a rock

The meaning of there was a stone in the middle of the road

Drummond's text uses the verb " have "in this sense of " have ". We understand that this generates a more colloquial and oral language, important to the meaning created by the poem. Thus begins the poem:

In the middle of the road had a stone

There was a stone midway

See that the stone is there, both "going" and "coming back" this way. The stone also appears in the middle of one verse and the other : the textual form reinforces the content of the poem, which also talks about a "stone in the middle of the road".

Normally, the verb to have is used to designate a relationship between possessor and possessed: "I have a pen". However, here it was used in the sense of "to have" or "to exist". In fact, poetry is the universe of overlapping senses, not necessarily exclusive senses. Thus, we can understand the verb "to have":

• on meaning to have or exist : in the middle of the path was a rock;
• and, also, in the sense of having : the middle of the path had a rock.

Although the verb haver in the sense of exist is impersonal, the second sense (to possess) also makes it very impersonal. The middle of the road has: as if nobody was responsible for putting the stone there The stone being placed there would have been a unconscious act ?

What does this stone symbolize?

In a quick summary, this stone is understood as a metaphor for everything that represents obstacles in our life On the side of the human psyche, this stone could be understood as the resistances, defenses and unconscious forces that act against our rational desire.

However, the removal of this stone would not be simple: the reinforcement (by repetition) that makes the poet is also an information of the "force of gravity" (gravity both in the sense of the laws of physics, and gravity in the immaterial sense of "serious", relevant) that strongly holds this stone in that place.

The unconscious also exerts this gravity: turning an object into a serious affection, through repetition A repetition that is subtle and that we don't notice, like the many stones that we never notice along the way (and that only the poet knew how to notice, that only the poet knew how to give it the solemnity and dignity of a poem).

Like Drummond, one would first have to acknowledge the existence of this stone, then,

• this stone as pain or hindrance
• is also a stone that shows itself as opportunity to learn more about the world and about ourselves.

"Way" and "stone" have no absolute value. It is only possible to assign relative values to them, that is, from the interaction that one creates in relation to the other.

You see, then, that understanding the stone as synonym of death and the path as synonym of life would be a very simplistic solution. After all, we can also understand:

• O path as flow, normality, a tendency to zero, as is the death drive (that is, our longing for non-suffering);
• And the stone as an interruption to this flow, a tendency to one, a resistance (in the sense of physics and electricity), as is the life drive (that is, our longing for events).

What should we do with this stone?

Should we then "praise" the presence of this stone in our path? Perhaps yes, within a limit, without getting too attached to this stone. For it will also take a degree of energy (physical, psychic) to remove it from there, to remove it from the path of our affection and attachment. And what will we do after we remove this stone, if we succeed? Perhaps we will put new objects on the path, or perhaps stonesnew.

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In a more superficial way this pebble in the way These stones described by Carlos Drummond may be related to the problems that people encounter in their social, political, and personal lives. In fact, this mentioned path alludes to the cycle of our existence.

After all, what is life if not a great path that we must travel? As such, we are all susceptible to encountering these stones. Moreover, these problems can impede our journey along the road of life.

The verses "I shall never forget this event in the life of my retinas so fatigued" convey a sense of weariness and fatigue. After all, problems tend to cause these feelings in all people. Since we always try to solve the issues that come our way, but end up encountering other obstacles.

Moreover, we can conclude that these mentioned stones indicate a very relevant event, which can mark our life. It is noteworthy the poet's competence to create an atmosphere of solemnity to what would be trivial. This solemnity is not empty: it shows that there is knowledge and beauty in the little things.

And it shows that taking things from the unrecognized (non-text) to the recognized (text) is a process similar in psychology to understand as conscious something that was previously the unconscious domain .

There was a stone in the middle of the road: a possible meaning for Carlos Drummond

As with any other work, whether literary or not, it is very common for connoisseurs to theorize about the significance of this production in the author's life. So the poem "In the Middle of the Road" could not be any different.

As we know, the writer of these beautiful and simple verses is Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Just to put his biography into context, the author was from Minas Gerais, born in Ibira, but spent part of his life in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He was one of the main poets of the second generation of Brazilian modernism, but his works are not restricted to this single movement.

There is a theory that "No Meio do Caminho" refers to the author's own biography. In his personal life, Drummond married his beloved Dolores Dutra de Morais on February 26, 1926.

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After a year of marriage, they had their first child. However, their firstborn survived only for 30 minutes, thus marking a great tragedy in the life of the couple. During this period of suffering, the author was asked to write a poem for the first issue of the Revista de Antropofagia.

Carlos Drummond was very much immersed in this personal tragedy. In the middle of this context, he produced the verses "No Meio do Caminho" (In the Middle of the Road). In 1928, when the magazine was already published with the author's poem, his poetic work gained prominence.

Another issue raised by the theorist Gilberto Mendonça is that the word "stone" has the same number of letters as the term loss This kind of phenomenon is characterized as hyperesis, a figure of speech. Therefore, the poem serves as a kind of tomb for Drummond's son is a way he chose to process this personal sadness.

Poem "In the Middle of the Road" as opposition to parnasianism

Carlos Drummond's poem dialogues with a work by the Parnassian Olavo Bilac (1865-1918): the sonnet "Nel mezzo del camin..." Both use the resource of repetition, but Bilac uses a more elaborate aesthetic, with the use of a very calculated structure and embellished language.

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Therefore, the verses created by Drummond are like a form of debauchery to parnasian poetry After all, the modernist uses a simple, everyday language, through a structure without musicality and without the presence of rhyme. His main objective was to elaborate a poetry that was more pure and focused on the essence.

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In this context, many theorists believe that this stone quoted by Drummond was the Parnassians. Since the adherents of this style prevented him from developing an art that was innovative but accessible to all.

It is worth noting that both Olavo Bilac and Carlos Drummond wrote their poems inspired by one of Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) main works, "The Divine Comedy" (1317), specifically in one of the verses of canto I, where the phrase "In the middle of the road" is found.

The publication of Drummond's poem

As we have already mentioned, the poem "No Meio do Caminho" was published unpublished in Revista de Antropofagia in issue number 3. The publication occurred in July 1928, under Oswald de Andrade's command. In fact, after the poem's release, it received a lot of harsh criticism.

The criticism revolved around the redundancy and repetition used by the author. To get an idea, the expression "had a stone" is used in 7 of the 10 verses of the poem Two years after its publication in the magazine, "No Meio do Caminho" was included in the book "Alguma Poesia" (Some Poetry).

The work was the poet's first publication and, like the poem, has a simple, everyday language. In fact, it has a very accessible and stripped speech.

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After it was published, the verses of "No Meio do Caminho" received criticism for their simplicity and repetition. However, as time went on, the poem began to be understood by critics and the public.

Nowadays, the poem is one of Carlos Drummond de Andrade's main works and anyone has heard or read it at least once For some critics, "Middle of the Road" is the product of genius, but for others, it is described as dull and meaningless.

Just like Drummond's elaborate verses, these criticisms are stones in the middle of his path.

Final thoughts: there was a stone in the middle of the road

The poem Middle of the Road has become world famous for its simplicity, but also for the way it touches us. After all, who doesn't have a stone in the middle of their path? After all, who doesn't feel tired with these little stones, right?

This text about Drummond's quote " there was a stone in the middle of the path "was written by the team of writers of the Psychoanalysis Clinic project and revised and expanded by Paulo Vieira He is the content manager of the Training Course in Clinical Psychoanalysis.