Augusto de Carvalho Rodrigues dos Anjos (April 20, 1884 – November 12, 1914) was a Brazilian poet and professor. His poems speak mostly of sickness and death, and are considered the forerunners of Modernism in Brazil. He is the patron of the first chair of the Paraiban Academy of Letters.

Biography

Augusto dos Anjos was born in 1884, in an '' engenho'' named Pau d'Arco, at the city of

Cruz do Espírito Santo Cruz do Espírito Santo is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the states of Brazil, state of Paraíba in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Paraíba References

Municipali ...

, in the Brazilian state of

Paraíba Paraíba ( , ; ) is a states of Brazil, state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it 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. Paraíba i ...

. (Nowadays, the ''engenho'' is located in 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 Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

course at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife, graduating in 1907. In 1910 he married Ester Fialho. Starting a career as a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

, he moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, where he served as teacher for many educational institutions and started to publish his poems in

periodicals Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

and newspapers. In 1912 he published his first and only poetry book, ''Eu'' (in ), 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, Minas Gerais, he died on November 12, 1914, a victim of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

Work

Augusto dos Anjos published only one book during his lifetime, named ''Eu''. The themes of its poems, that are impregnated with a heavily

scatological In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (nutrition), diet (and thus habitat (ecology), where ...

medical, scientific and philosophical vocabulary, are mostly sickness, death, heavy morbidity and pessimism. Literary critics are not sure to which literary movement Augusto dos Anjos belong: some say he was a

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

and some say he was a Parnassian, although Ferreira Gullar classifies him as being a Pre-Modernist.

Trivia

* A recurring character in most of his poems is a

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this spe ...

tree, that exists to this day at the remains of 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, a habit that made his sister think he was mentally ill. * It is believed that he had

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

.Asthma among the famous. Brazilian literary figures. Augusto dos Anjos (1884-1914)
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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anjos, Augusto Dos 1884 births 1914 deaths Brazilian male poets People from Paraíba Deaths from pneumonia in Minas Gerais 20th-century Brazilian poets 20th-century Brazilian male writers People from Leopoldina, Minas Gerais