# Death — Poetry character guide

> Death in Poetry by Fernando Pessoa.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0000-35-sonnets

## Who they are

The recurring threshold in Pessoa's verse, at once the end of the body and, for Hadrian, the portal through which a lover becomes divine.

## Relationships

### [Hadrian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters/hadrian)

_rivalry_

Death and Hadrian are locked in a tense rivalry, with Hadrian resisting or challenging Death's inevitable claim.

### [Lo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters/lo)

_rivalry_

Death and Lo are adversaries, with Lo actively defying or escaping Death's grasp.

## In the story

### [35 Sonnets](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/35-sonnets)

Alluded to in meditations on mortality and the end of life.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iv)

Implied through the beloved's long-dead state and the grave's material secrecy.

### [English Poems](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/english-poems)

Referenced in contexts of loss and the grave.

### [Antinous](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/antinous)

Personified as a force that claims Antinous and brings coldness and eclipse.

### [Inscriptions](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/inscriptions)

Personified as taking a child in section VIII.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/viii)

The force that takes the child.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ix)

Death is implied as the force that reduces the living to sand and silences the inn's light.

### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiv)

Implied presence through the imagery of being covered by soil and the finality of burial.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters/death
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters