A founding figure of Brazilian Modernism, he was a poet and author of essays, chronicles, and memoirs. He worked as a translator and organizer of anthologies and served as a professor of Hispanic literature and a critic of visual arts.

The poems in his early books, A cinza das horas (1917) and Carnaval (1919), incorporate free verse and everyday themes, woven together with a lyricism that was still unprecedented in Brazil. The irony, tragic humor, and colloquialism of Libertinagem (1930) foreshadow the traits of the Mimeographed Generation—represented by Cacaso, Chacal, Ana Cristina César, among others.

His close friendship with Mário de Andrade and Oswald de Andrade formed a group that promoted the Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) in 1922—a provocative event in the cultural landscape that updated European avant-gardes and proposed new aesthetics. He mingled with Jaime Ovalle and Menotti del Picchia and participated in the modernist magazines Klaxon, Antropofagia, Lanterna Verde, and Terra Roxa. He wrote chronicles for A Província, directed by Gilberto Freyre, Jornal do Brasil, Folha da Manhã, and also for Rádio Ministério da Educação. His friend Carlos Drummond de Andrade compiled Andorinha, andorinha with the poet’s prose on the occasion of his 80th birthday. His works are collected in Estrela da vida inteira (1966).