Message was the only portuguese book Fernando Pessoa published in his lifetime and received the Antero de Quental prize, awarded by the Portuguese government. Originally, the book title was Portugal. However, influenced by a friend, Pessoa considered Message a more appropriate title. The author chose the word inspired by a latin quote by Virgil, in Aeneid: “Mens agitat molem” that means “the spirit animates the matter”. Eventhough the poet called this work “a little book of poems”, it’s in these pages that he looks at the mythical and glorious past of Portugal, comparing it to the decay of the present, remembering the unique force of the Portuguese soul and its regeneration through the Fifth Empire.