Álvares de Azevedo he was a Brazilian writer from the second generation of romanticism (1853 to 1869), called the “ultra-romantic generation” or the “bad-of-the-century”.
This denomination refers to the themes chosen by the writers of that period: sad and tragic events, disillusionment, unrequited love, death, among others.
Álvares de Azevedo was Patron of Chair No. 2 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL).
Biography
Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo was born in the city of São Paulo, on September 12, 1831.
Son of an illustrious family, his father was Inácio Manuel Álvares de Azevedo and his mother, Maria Luísa Mota Azevedo, Manuel.
At just 2 years old, he moved with his family to the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he spent his childhood. He studied at Colégio Stoll and at Pedro II boarding school, where he stood out as an excellent student.
In 1848, at just 17 years of age, he enrolled in the Law course at the São Paulo Faculty of Law, standing out for his brilliance and engagement.
He founded the “Monthly Magazine of the São Paulo Philosophical Essay Society” in 1849. In 1851, the poet suffered a fall from a horse, an event that favored the appearance of a tumor in the iliac fossa and, consequently, of pulmonary tuberculosis, a disease that accompanied him until the end of his life.
Death
Álvares de Azevedo died in Rio de Janeiro, on April 25, 1852, when he was just 20 years old.
It is interesting to note that a month before his death, he wrote the poem entitled “if i died tomorrow”. The production was read on the day of his funeral by the literate Joaquim Manuel de Macedo (1820-1882). Below is the poetry:
If I died tomorrow, I would at least come
Close my eyes my sad sister;
My homesick mother would die
If I died tomorrow!
How much glory I sense in my future!
What a dawn to come and what a morning!
I had lost crying those wreaths
If I died tomorrow!
What a sun! what a blue sky! how sweet on the morning
Wake up the wildest nature!
Hadn't hit me so much love in the chest
If I died tomorrow!
But this pain of life that devours
The yearning for glory, the aching eagerness...
The chest pain was at least muted
If I died tomorrow!
Works and features
Due to his untimely death, Álvares de Azevedo's literary production was published posthumously.
The poetic anthology “Twenty Years Lira”, the only work that the poet prepared for publication, and which was only published in 1853.
This work was part of a project that did not take place, created in partnership with friends and writers from Minas Gerais, Bernardo Guimarães (1825-1884) and Aureliano Lessa (1828-1861). The idea was that the publication would be called “The Three Lire”.
His writings were heavily influenced by the works of the English romantic poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). It is worth remembering that the second generation of romanticism was called "Byroniana ou Ultraromantica", precisely because it was inspired by the production of this poet.
Thus, the works of Álvares de Azevedo were marked by pessimism. We note the choice of themes about death, pain, illness, love disillusionment and frustration, often permeated by a sarcastic and ironic tone.
Other works that were published posthumously:
- Various Poetry (1853)
- Night at the Tavern (1855)
- Macarius (1855)
- Friar's Poem (1862)
- The Count Lopo (1866)
Read too: second generation romantic and Ultraromanticism
poems
Check below two poems that make up Álvares de Azevedo's most emblematic work: “Twenty Years Lira”:
my disgrace
My disgrace, no, it's not being a poet,
Not even in the land of love doesn't have an echo,
And my angel of God, my planet
Treat me like a doll...
It's not walking with broken elbows,
To have the pillow rock hard...
I know... The world is a lost bog
Whose sun (I wish!) is money...
My disgrace, O candid maiden,
What makes my chest so blasphemous,
It's having to write a whole poem,
And not having a penny for a candle.
her scarf
When the first time, from my land
I left the nights of love enchantment,
my sweet lover sighing
She turned her wet eyes to me.
A novel sang farewell,
But the nostalgia dampened the singing!
Tears wiped from her beautiful eyes...
And she gave me the handkerchief that wet my tears.
How many years have passed!
Do not forget but love so holy!
I still keep it in a scented safe
Her handkerchief that wet her tears...
I never met her again in my life,
I, however, my God, loved her so much!
Oh! when i die lay on my face
The handkerchief I bathed in tears too!
Sentences
- “Life is a meaningless mockery. Infamous comedy that bloods the slime.”
- “In love affairs, no partners.”
- “I leave life as I leave boredom.”
- “Happy is he who does not have written sheets in the book of the soul. And neither bitter, regretful nostalgia nor damn tears.”
- “There is no better grave for pain than a cup full of wine or black eyes full of languor.”
- “All the vaporousness of abstract vision does not matter as much as the reality of the beautiful woman we love.”
Read more about the romantic movement:
- Romanticism: characteristics and historical context
- Romanticism in Brazil
- Romantic Generations in Brazil
- Brazilian Romantic Poetry
- The Language of Romanticism
