Second generation of Romanticism: context, authors, works

THE second generation of Brazilian Romanticism is named ultra-romantic or Byronic. Heavily influenced by European authors such as Goethe and Byron, writers in this group produced works with a certain tonepessimistic and depressive. O overkillsentimental, O macabre it's the delirium are brands present in ultra-romantic books.

Historical context

The historical context of Romanticism is the time course between the centuriesXVIII and XIX that makes up the process of rise gives bourgeoisie as the ruling class in society. In particular, a significant portion of the youth the 19th century was enchanted by ultra-romantic literature.

This was because there was a consonanceinfeelings and perspectives on life among these young people and the characters portrayed in romantic novels and novels. O overkillsentimental, O self-centeredness, a idealization of the woman, the pessimism in front of existence and the willinto run away they are marks of both the fiction of the period and the very life of this part of society.

In fact, for example, after the publication of the narrative "The sufferings of young Werther”, by Goethe, many young people committed suicide-if, imitating the destinyFinal of the protagonist of the book. This historical fact represents very well how the authors of the Byronic generation managed to represent the spirit of a parcel givesyouth of the period.

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Characteristics

Some of the main characteristics of the second generation romantic are:

• Self-centeredness: In ultra-romantic works, a clear focus on the subject in detrimentofworld. In many works, even the space outside the “I” is just the setting for the character's existence. In general, social issues – tensions from the outside world – are not usually addressed by writers of this generation.
• sentimentalityexaggerated: THE idealizationloving and the projection of a womanperfect they are common in the works of the second generation romantic. O love and the loved are almost always utopias unattainable and, therefore, the characters and the lyrical subjects suffer greatly.
• Strong depressive tone: THE depression – or “badofcentury”, as it was called – was clearly perceptible in the discourse present in ultra-romantic proses and poems.
• Tendency to escape from reality: in front of a giftdisastrous, marked by loneliness and for disillusionmentloving, the characters and lyrical subjects of the second romantic generation presented speeches in which they exalted the desire to escape reality. This escape showed itself in different ways, such as through the desireinto die, through exaltationgivesBohemiaunruly, or running away to childhood.
• Taste for the delirium and the macabre: Thematization of the grotesque, of macabre it's from delusion situations are common in ultra-romantic narratives.
• romantic irony: It is a concept used to define a certain common behavior among the authors of the romantic second generation. Such behavior boils down to presenting a highdegreeincriticality in relation to the ultra-romantic productions themselves. An example of this would be well represented in the second preface of the book “Lira dos 20 anos”, by Álvares de Azevedo:

Here the visionary and platonic world dissipates. We are going to enter a new world, fantastic land, true Barataria island of D. Quixote, where Sancho is king and Panurge lives, Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Figaro, and the Sganarello of D. João Tenório: — the homeland of dreams of Cervantes and Shakespeare.

Almost after Ariel we bumped into Caliban.

The reason is simple. The unity of this book is based on a binomial: — two souls who live in the caves of a brain more or less like a poet wrote this book, a true medal with two faces.

Furthermore, forgive me the poets of the time, this is a theme, if not newer, less exhausted at least than the sentimentalism so fascinating from Werther to René.

In a spirit of contradiction, when men find themselves inundated with loving pages, they prefer a tale by Bocaccio, a caricature of Rabelais, a Falstaff's scene in Shakespeare's Henry IV, a fantastic proverb of that polisson Alfredo de Musset, to all the elegiac tenderness of that poetry of imitation that is in fashion and reduces the unalloyed gold coins of the great poets to the copper change, divisible to the extreme, of the Lilliputians poets. Before Lent there is Carnival.

There is a crisis in centuries as in men. It is when poetry became blinded, dazzled by looking at itself in mysticism, and fell from the sky feeling its golden wings exhausted.

The poet wakes up on earth. Furthermore, the poet is a man: Homo sum, as the famous Roman said. He sees, hears, feels and, what is more, dreams at night the beautiful palpable visions of awake. It has nerves, it has fiber, and it has arteries—that is, before and after being an idealistic being, it is a being that has a body. And, say what you will, without these elements, which I am the first to recognize as very prosaic, there is no poetry.

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authors

The main authors of the second Brazilian romantic generation are:

• Álvares de Azevedo;
• Casimiro de Abreu.

Construction

The poetic work "twenties lyre”, by Álvares de Azevedo, is a famous representative of the Byronic generation, as is the book “the springs”, by Casimiro de Abreu, who also illustrates this aspect. The first author, in addition to being a poet, also published the theatrical play “Macarius” and the storybook “night in the tavern”.

poems

THE LIZARD

The lizard in the burning sun lives
And making you see the body stretches:
The glare of your eyes gives me life,
You are the sun and I am the lizard.

I love you like wine and like sleep,
You are my cup and loving bed...
But your love nectar never runs out,
There's no pillow like your chest.

I can now live: for crowns
I don't need to pick flowers in the meadow;
Better wreath my forehead
In the gentlest roses of your loves

A whole harem is worth my beauty,
In making me happy she whims...
I live in the sun of your sweetheart eyes,
Like the lizard in the summer sun.

(Álvares de Azevedo)

In the verses, you can see the destitutiongivesfigure of the lover, typically idealized by the Romanticism – “You are the sun and I am the lizard”. By comparing, therefore, the lyrical subject with a lizard, the poet escapes the romantic, virtuous and heroic standard “I”, and represents-O likeaanimal that traditionally is not considered beautiful or elevated.

REMEMBRANCE OF DIE

When the fiber bursts in my chest, May the spirit bind the living pain, shed no tears for me In demented eyelid. And don't even defoliate in impure matter The flower of the valley that falls asleep in the wind: I don't want a note of joy Shut up for my sad passing. I leave life as boredom leaves From the desert, the walkway, ... Like the hours of a long nightmare That breaks at the toll of a bell; Like the banishment of my wandering soul, Where senseless fire consumed her: I just miss... It's from those times What a loving illusion it beautified. I just miss... it's from these shadows That I felt watching on my nights... From you, oh my mother, poor thing, That by my sadness you are wasting away! From my father... of my only friends, Few - very few... and who didn't mock When, on nights of crazed fever, My pale beliefs doubted.

If a tear floods my eyelids, If a sigh in the breasts still trembles, It's the virgin I dreamed of... that never The beautiful face touched my lips! Only you to the dreamy youth From the pale poet of this flowers... If he lived, it was for you! and of hope In life, enjoy your loves. I will kiss the holy and naked truth, I will see the friendly dream crystallize... O my virgin of wandering dreams, Child of heaven, I will love with you! rest my lonely bed In the forgotten forest of men, In the shadow of a cross, and write on it: He was a poet - he dreamed - and he loved in life. Valley shadows, mountain nights That my soul sang and loved so much, I protected my abandoned body, And in silence pour him song! But when prelude bird of dawn And when at midnight the sky rests, Groves of the forest, open the branches... Let the moon silver my slate! (Álvares de Azevedo)

Note in this poem the strongtonedepressive and pessimistic about the life expressed by the lines "I leave life as boredom leaves you / From the desert, the poento caminheiro", in addition to the desire to escape, in which the exhaust valve is represented by the death. The presence of the sentimentalityexaggerated, as in “I just miss you... it is from those times / What a loving illusion it beautified.”.

MY EIGHT YEARS

Oh! I miss you From the dawn of my life, from my dear childhood That the years bring no more ! What love, what dreams, what flowers, in those smoky afternoons In the shade of the banana trees, Under the orange groves! how beautiful the days are From the dawn of existence! – Breathe the soul innocence Like flower perfumes; The sea is – serene lake, The sky - a bluish mantle, The world – a golden dream, Life – a hymn of love! What auroras, what a sun, what a life, what melody nights in that sweet joy, In that naive play! The embroidered sky of stars, The land of scents full, the waves kissing the sand And the moon kissing the sea! Oh! days of my childhood! Oh! my spring sky! How sweet was life On this smiling morning!

Instead of grievances now, I had these delights from my mother the caresses And kisses from my sister! Free child of the mountains, I was very satisfied, With a shirt open to the chest, – Bare feet, bare arms – running through the meadows Around the waterfalls, behind the light wings Of the blue butterflies! in those blissful times I was going to pick the pitangas, I fucked taking off my sleeves, He played by the sea; He prayed to the Hail Marys, I thought the sky was always beautiful, I fell asleep smiling, And I woke up singing! Oh! I miss you from the dawn of my life from my dear childhood That the years bring no more ! – What love, what dreams, what flowers, in those smoky afternoons In the shade of the banana trees, Under the orange groves! (Casimiro de Abreu)

The poem by Casimiro de Abreu presents the escapeofgift troubled in a different way. He prefers to access his past so that it can bring you some relief. In this poetry, the author places himself in a position of beholderofpast, which is also an important characteristic of the second generation of Romanticism.

By Mother Fernando Marinho

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/a-segunda-geracao-romantismo.htm