Delmira Agustini (October 24, 1886 – July 6, 1914) was a

Uruguayan Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...

poet of the early 20th century.

Biography

Born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay, she began writing when she was ten and had her first book of poems published when she was still a teenager. She wrote for the magazine ''La Alborada'' (The Dawn). She formed part of the Generation of 1900, along with Julio Herrera y Reissig,

Leopoldo Lugones Leopoldo Antonio Lugones Argüello (13 June 1874 – 18 February 1938) was an Argentine poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, historian, professor, translator, biographer, philologist, theologian, diplomat, politician and journalist. His poetic ...

and

Horacio Quiroga Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza (31 December 1878 – 19 February 1937) was a Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer. The jungle settings of his stories emphasized the conflict between humans and nature. His portrayals of mental ...

Rubén Darío Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (18 January 1867 – 6 February 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as '' modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...

, a Nicaraguan poet, was an important influence for her. She looked up to him as a teacher. Darío compared Agustini to

Teresa of Ávila Teresa of Ávila (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada; 28March 15154or 15October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Active during the Counter-Re ...

, stating that Agustini was the only woman writer since the saint to express herself as a woman. She specialized in the topic of female sexuality during a time when the literary world was dominated by men. Agustini's writing style is best classified in the first phase of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, with themes based on fantasy and exotic subjects.

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

, god of love, symbolizes eroticism and is the inspiration to Agustini's poems about carnal pleasures. Eros is the protagonist in many of Agustini's literary works. She even dedicated her third book to him titled ''Los Cálices Vacíos'' (Empty Chalices) in 1913, which was acclaimed as her entrance into a new literary movement, "La Vanguardia" (The Vanguard).

Personal life and death

She married Enrique Job Reyes on August 14, 1913. Their divorce was finalized on June 5, 1914. A month after that, Reyes fatally shot Agustini twice in the head and afterwards committed suicide. She died in her house in

, Uruguay. She is buried in the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.

Bibliography

* 1907: ''El libro blanco''Web page title
"Delmira Agustini"
at the Universitat Jaume's "Modernismo en España e Hispanoamérica" website. Retrieved September 1, 2011. * 1910: ''Cantos de la mañana'' * 1913: ''Los cálices vacíos, pórtico de Rubén Darío'' * 1924: ''Obras completas'' ("Complete Works"): Volume 1, ''El rosario de Eros''; Volume 2: ''Los astros del abismo'', posthumously published (died 1914), Montevideo, Uruguay: Máximo García * 1944: ''Poesías'', prologue by Luisa Luisi (Montevideo, Claudio García & Co.) * 1971: ''Poesías completas'', prólogue and notes by Manuel Alvar, Barcelona: Editorial Labor

Works translated into other languages

Valerie Martínez has translated many of Agustini's poems into English. Some of Agustini's poems are translated into Nepali by

Suman Pokhrel Suman Pokhrel (; born 21 September 1967) is a Nepali people, Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist. Universities in Nepal and India have included his poetry in their syllabi. Pokhrel is the only writer to have received the SAA ...

, and collected in an anthology titled Manpareka Kehi Kavita..

References

External links

*Cathy L. Jrad
"Modernization, Feminism, and Delmira Agustini"
Vanderbilt University *Judy Veramendi

a novel and play based on the life and writings of Delmira Agustini. {{DEFAULTSORT:Agustini, Delmira 19th-century Uruguayan poets Uruguayan people of Italian descent 1886 births 1914 deaths Uruguayan murder victims Deaths by firearm in Uruguay People murdered in Uruguay Burials at the Central Cemetery of Montevideo Uruguayan women poets 20th-century Uruguayan poets 20th-century Uruguayan women writers 19th-century Uruguayan women writers Murder–suicides in South America People murdered in 1914 1+1 (TV channel) people