The Invention of Rhythm in Jorge de Lima is an analysis of Jorge de Lima s last book that places the author s trajectory within the Modernist movement as a central element in the evolution of his final work. The research traces the evolution of his process of conversion to Catholicism and adhesion to Modernism through readings of poems that show his growing mystical longing. The growth of Lima s religious feeling is observed in tandem with his researches, dialogues and references in the sphere of avant-garde experimentalism. Considering the importance he gives to the review of Brazilian literary tradition in Invenção de Orfeu and his identification of Brazil with the image of the island, the dissertation shows how Lima reformulates Modernist issues and takes up the problematic relation between innovation and tradition. It also proposes a formal analysis of Lima s verse in the book, detailing his technical procedures and achieved effects in dialogue with semantic content. Finally, the dissertation attempts to situate the work in terms of its Orphic and playful character, in the light of Giorgio Agamben s concepts, as the fertile and defining aspect of the poem s synthesis of Modernism and tradition.