Augusto dos Anjos
Encyclopedia
Augusto de Carvalho Rodrigues dos Anjos (April 20, 1884 — November 12, 1914) was a Brazil
ian poet and professor. His poems speak mostly of sickness and death, and are considered to forerun the Modernism
in Brazil.
He is the patron of the first chair of the Paraiban Academy of Letters.
named Pau d'Arco, at the city of Cruz do Espírito Santo
, in the Brazilian State of Paraíba
. (Nowadays, the engenho is situated in the city of Sapé
, also in Paraíba.) He was initially homeschooled by his father, until he was admitted at the Lyceu Paraibano, where he would become a teacher in 1908. Augusto wrote poems since he was 7 years old.
In 1903 he was admitted at Law
course at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife
, graduating in 1907. In 1910 he married Ester Fialho.
Starting a career as a magistrate
, he moved to Rio de Janeiro
, where he served as teacher for many educational institutions and started to publish his poems in periodicals and newspapers. In 1912 he published his first and only poetry book, named Eu (in Me), that received mixed reviews by the time it was published. (Órris Soares, lifelong friend of Augusto dos Anjos, would republish Eu in 1919, adding then-unpublished poems to it and re-releasing it under the title Eu e Outras Poesias, and since then the book has received better reviews.)
As he was serving as a headmaster at a school in the city of Leopoldina
, in Minas Gerais
, he died in November 12, 1914, victimated by pneumonia
.
Literary critics are not sure to which literary movement Augusto dos Anjos belong: some say he was a Symbolist
and some say he was a Parnassian, although Ferreira Gullar
classifies him as being a Pre-Modernist.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian poet and professor. His poems speak mostly of sickness and death, and are considered to forerun the Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
in Brazil.
He is the patron of the first chair of the Paraiban Academy of Letters.
Biography
Augusto do Anjos was born in 1884, in an engenhoEngenho
Engenho is a colonial-era Portuguese term for a cane sugar mill and the associated facilities. The word engenho usually only referred to the mill, but it could also describe the area as a whole including land, a mill, the people who farmed and who had a knowledge of sugar production, and a crop of...
named Pau d'Arco, at the city of Cruz do Espírito Santo
Cruz do Espírito Santo
Cruz do Espírito Santo is a town and municipality in the state of Paraíba in the Northeast Region of Brazil.-References:...
, in the Brazilian State of Paraíba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
. (Nowadays, the engenho is situated in the city of Sapé
Sapé, Paraíba
Sapé, Paraíba is a town and municipality in the state of Paraíba in the Northeast Region of Brazil.-References:...
, also in Paraíba.) He was initially homeschooled by his father, until he was admitted at the Lyceu Paraibano, where he would become a teacher in 1908. Augusto wrote poems since he was 7 years old.
In 1903 he was admitted at Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
course at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife
Faculdade de Direito do Recife
The Faculty of Law of Recife, now called Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Pernambuco , is a law school in the city of Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil.-History:It is one of the first superior education centres created in Brazil; it was created...
, graduating in 1907. In 1910 he married Ester Fialho.
Starting a career as a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
, he moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, where he served as teacher for many educational institutions and started to publish his poems in periodicals and newspapers. In 1912 he published his first and only poetry book, named Eu (in Me), that received mixed reviews by the time it was published. (Órris Soares, lifelong friend of Augusto dos Anjos, would republish Eu in 1919, adding then-unpublished poems to it and re-releasing it under the title Eu e Outras Poesias, and since then the book has received better reviews.)
As he was serving as a headmaster at a school in the city of Leopoldina
Leopoldina
Leopoldina is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. , it has a population of 51,136.It is situated in the southeastern Zona da Mata mesoregion of the state....
, in Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
, he died in November 12, 1914, victimated by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
.
Work
Augusto dos Anjos published only one book during his lifetime, named Eu. Its themes are sickness, death, heavy morbidity and pessimism. The poems' vocabulary is very medical and scientific as well.Literary critics are not sure to which literary movement Augusto dos Anjos belong: some say he was a Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
and some say he was a Parnassian, although Ferreira Gullar
Ferreira Gullar
Ferreira Gullar is the pen name for José Ribamar Ferreira , Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist, art critic, and television writer...
classifies him as being a Pre-Modernist.
Trivia
- A recurring character in most of his poems is a tamarindTamarindTamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
tree, that exists to this day at the engenho Pau d'Arco. - According to Órris Soares, Augusto dos Anjos used to make his poems in his head, walking around, gesticulating and saying its verses out loud, before putting them into paper.
- Eudes Barros told that, while living with his sister in Rio de Janeiro, he used to make up poems by sitting in his house's yard and screaming the verses, what made his sister think he was crazy.
- It is believed that he had asthmaAsthmaAsthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. - Although he died of pneumonia, many people thought he died from tuberculosisTuberculosisTuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, possibly because he mentions this disease a lot in his poems.