The Hour and the Fog: Epic discourse, will to power and the malaise of modernity in Fernando Pessoa's poem Mensagem

When, back in 1912, Fernando Pessoa announced in his articles A Nova Poesia Portuguesa Sociologicamente Considerada and Reincidindo "the brief appearance of the Supra-Camões", he was imagining his triumphant appearance as the redeeming poet of a nation that had long hoped to see its glory days resurface. Twenty-two years before the publication of Mensagem, its author was already dreaming of a work that could surpass Os Lusíadas in Portugal's mythical-poetic imagination. However, this grandiose desire to be able to change reality would come up against severe "foggy" conditions, which would only allow him to transform hope into a dream, conceiving a new form of heroism, characterized by confronting the absurdity of reality.