# Unknown — Poetry character guide > Unknown in Poetry by Fernando Pessoa. **Role:** major **Also known as:** myself, mine **First appearance:** 0000-35-sonnets ## Who they are A first-person voice that doubts whether any self can be spoken, writing sonnets about the unbridgeable distance between soul and word. ## In the story ### [35 Sonnets](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/35-sonnets) The speaker throughout the sonnets, reflecting on personal emotions and philosophical questions. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/i) The narrator reflects on the self and the inability to truly express the soul. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ii) The speaker reflects on the limitations of sensory perception and the resulting existential despair. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iii) The speaker contemplates his own legacy and the inadequacy of his soul compared to his written words. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iv) The speaker who struggles to reconcile his idealized memory with the physical reality of the grave. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/v) The speaker expresses frustration over the conflict between daily obligations and his poetic mission. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vi) The speaker reflects on his own inadequacy in expressing love and hate, estranged by consciousness from sentiment. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vii) The speaker expresses personal anguish over the possibility of total annihilation of thought after death. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/viii) The speaker reflects on the soul's masks and the nature of self-deception. ### [Chapter IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ix) The speaker expresses deep frustration with his own idleness and self-loathing, describing a paralyzing cycle of action and despair. ### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/x) The speaker who deceives his own heart with promises and reflects on the nature of his self-deception. ### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xi) The speaker reflects on the soul's growth through trials, using the ship metaphor to express a philosophical insight. ### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xii) The speaker, who experiences and reflects on the terror of perceived nothingness. ### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiii) The speaker, who examines his own consciousness and the nature of his love. ### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiv) The speaker who contemplates the nature of existence and perception. ### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xv) The speaker, who likens himself to a bad suitor, torn between longing and fear of rejection. ### [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xvi) The speaker who contemplates the ephemeral nature of joy and the futility of trying to recapture it through thought. ### [Chapter XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xvii) The speaker who contemplates the nature of love and existence. ### [Chapter XVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xviii) The speaker reflects on his own existence and thought, standing as the thinker of these thoughts. ### [XIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xix) The speaker who reflects on the nature of love and beauty, and confesses his own unworthiness. ### [Chapter XX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xx) The speaker reflects on his own soul's journey through rebirth and the persistence of memory. ### [XXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxii) The speaker who contemplates his own soul as an ancient, indecipherable pageant. ### [Chapter XXIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxiii) The speaker who contemplates the relationship between presence and absence, Good and evil. ### [Chapter XXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxiv) The speaker contemplates an ancient self that predates the stars and the sun. ### [Chapter XXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxv) The speaker contemplates the collective human condition, using 'we' and 'us' to include all. ### [Chapter XXVI: The Limits of Knowledge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxvi) The speaker reflects on the nature of knowledge and perception, expressing a profound epistemological uncertainty. ### [Chapter XXVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxvii) The speaker meditates on time and mortality, expressing personal fear of death. ### [XXVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxviii) The speaker, who doubts the reality of the external world and seeks truth in dreams. ### [Chapter XXIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxix) The speaker, expressing profound existential weariness and paralysis of will. ### [The Rainbow of Hope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxx) The speaker contemplates the nature of truth, pain, and hope. ### [XXXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxxi) The speaker, who claims to be older than Nature and Time through Consciousness, and feels exiled from his childhood land. ### [XXXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxxii) The speaker reflects on the nature of his own perception and the division between universal soul and personal self. ### [XXXIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxxiii) The speaker who contemplates the paradoxes of thought, nothingness, and being. ### [XXXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxxiv) The speaker who reflects on his own curtailment by Fate and the resulting societal contempt. ### [Chapter XXXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxxv) The speaker expresses personal failure and sorrow, reflecting on his own heart and will. ### [English Poems](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/english-poems) The central voice throughout the poems, reflecting on personal experiences and emotions. ### [Inscriptions](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/inscriptions) The collective voice of the dead, speaking from their graves. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/i) The speaker reflects on life, virtue, and the weight of existence. ### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ii) The speaker who recounts their own death and forgotten existence. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iii) The speaker who looks down from his villa and performs the gesture of covering his head with his toga. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iv) The speaker who recalls former abundance and now laments being dead. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/v) The speaker who conquered and reflects on his role in the game of fate. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vi) The speaker who describes being a natural wife and living without a fate. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vii) The speaker who puts by pleasure and stands stern and separate, only to be overtaken by a shadow and lost in a dream. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/viii) The speaker who passes alongside the child. ### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ix) The narrator reflects on the collective fate of those who once lived and dined in the town. ### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/x) The speaker who lies beside the beloved, reflecting on their past love. ### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xi) The speaker who fought for the city and reflects on the mutual need between himself and the city. ### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xii) The narrator reflects on the collective human experience of being lived by life. ### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiii) The narrator observes the completion of the work and reflects on its ultimate emptiness. ### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiv) The speaker who is now covered by earth and soil, having once trod upon it, and who placed the inscriptions. ### [Epithalamium](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/epithalamium) The voice commanding the opening of shutters, calling to the bride, and orchestrating the day's events. ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/i) The speaker who commands the shutters open and observes the bride's awakening. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iii) Third-person narrator describing the bride's inner turmoil and physical sensations. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/iv) The narrator addresses the sunbeams and describes the scene, urging them to comfort the bride. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/v) The narrator addresses the assembly and the 'moted gnomes,' speaking with imperative authority. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vi) The narrator speaks to the bride, encouraging her to rise and accept pleasure. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/vii) Narrates the bride's actions and inner state, urging her to dress and not pause to wonder. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/viii) The narrator observes the scene with a detached yet intimate gaze, noting the maids' shared thoughts and the bride's trembling feet and sideways-leaning head. ### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/ix) Observes and describes the bride's state and the surrounding scene. ### [The Bride's Emergence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/x) The narrator observes and describes the bride's emergence and the surrounding atmosphere. ### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xi) The speaker orchestrates the wedding celebration, calling for decorations and music. ### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xii) The narrator addresses the bride and her companions, urging them to move to the church. ### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiii) The speaker reflects on the superficiality of the wedding ceremony and the inner, primal experience. ### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xiv) The narrator describes the bridegroom's lust and the bride's feelings, as well as the reactions of others and children. ### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xv) The speaker who addresses the aged and recalls past love. ### [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xvi) The speaker exhorts lovers to live in the moment and embrace physical desire. ### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xvii) The observing narrator who perceives the bacchic frenzy beneath the wedding's surface. ### [XVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xviii) The speaker exhorts the participants to embrace sensual abandon. ### [XIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xix) The observing voice that describes the scene with detached intensity. ### [Chapter XX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xx) The speaker exhorts the audience to pursue genuine procreative love. ### [XXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/xxi) The speaker who addresses the newlyweds and urges them to follow natural instincts. ### [Meantime](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/meantime) The speaker who mourns a distant beloved and imagines a future memory. ### [Spell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/chapters/spell) The speaker who stretches foiled hands from dreams and seeks union with the beloved. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters/unknown_narrator - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_6_se/characters