View source for Augusto dos Anjos

{{Short description|Brazilian poet and teacher}}
{{Portuguese name|Carvalho Rodrigues|dos Anjos}}
{{Infobox writer
| name          = Augusto dos Anjos
| image         = Augusto_Anjos.jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = Portrait of Augusto dos Anjos published with his 1912 book, ''Eu''
| pen_name      = 
| birth_name    = Augusto de Carvalho Rodrigues dos Anjos
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1884|4|20|mf=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Cruz do Espírito Santo]], [[Paraíba]], Brazil
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1914|11|12|1884|4|20|mf=y}}
| death_place   = [[Leopoldina, Minas Gerais|Leopoldina]], [[Minas Gerais]], Brazil
| occupation    = Poet, professor
| citizenship   = 
| education     = 
| alma_mater    = [[Federal University of Pernambuco Recife School of Law]]
| period        = 
| genre         = 
| subject       = 
| movement      = [[Parnassianism]], [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]], Pre-[[Modernism]]
| notable_works = ''Eu e Outras Poesias''
| spouse        = {{marriage|Ester Fialho|1910}}
| partner       = 
| children      = 
| relatives     = 
| awards        = 
| signature     = 
| website       = 
}}
'''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]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Augusto dos Anjos: Biography and Poems {{!}} Brazilian Poetry|url=https://www.brazilianpoetry.com/2021/05/augusto-dos-anjos-biography-and-poems.html|access-date=2021-05-28}}</ref> 

He is the patron of the first chair of the Paraiban Academy of Letters.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Letras |first=Academia Paraibana de |date=27 November 2012 |title=Nº 01 - (PATRONO) AUGUSTO DOS ANJOS |url=https://aplpb.com.br/augusto-dos-anjos/ |access-date=25 August 2025 |website=Academia Paraibana de Letras |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

==Biography==
Augusto dos Anjos was born in 1884, in an ''[[engenho]]'' named Pau d'Arco, at the city of [[Cruz do Espírito Santo]], in the Brazilian state of [[Paraíba]] (nowadays, the ''engenho'' is located in [[Sapé, Paraíba|Sapé]], also in Paraíba).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Bula |first=Revista |date=22 August 2025 |title=Pagou para publicar o único livro. Viveu na pobreza. Morreu aos 30. E virou lenda incômoda da poesia |url=https://www.revistabula.com/111110-pagou-para-publicar-o-unico-livro-viveu-na-pobreza-morreu-aos-30-e-virou-lenda-incomoda-da-poesia/ |access-date=25 August 2025 |website=Revista Bula |language=pt-BR}}</ref> He was initially homeschooled by his father, until he was admitted at the Lyceu Paraibano, where he would become a teacher in 1908.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":1" />

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 [[periodical literature|periodicals]] and newspapers. In 1912 he published his first and only poetry book, ''Eu'' (in {{langx|en|Me}}), that received mixed reviews by the time it was published.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />

As he was serving as a headmaster at a school in the city of [[Leopoldina, Minas Gerais|Leopoldina]], Minas Gerais, when he died on November 12, 1914, victim of [[pneumonia]].<ref name=":0" />

==Work==
Augusto dos Anjos published only one book during his lifetime, named ''Eu''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Augusto dos Anjos |url=http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/augusto_dos_anjos.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225145251/http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/augusto_dos_anjos.htm |archive-date=25 December 2005 |access-date=26 August 2025 |website=www.vidaslusofonas.pt}}</ref> The themes of its poems, that are impregnated with a heavily [[scatology|scatological]] medical, scientific and philosophical vocabulary, are mostly sickness, death, heavy morbidity and pessimism.<ref>{{Cite news |date=31 July 2005 |title=Augusto dos Anjos |url=https://educacao.uol.com.br/biografias/augusto-dos-anjos.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428115609/https://educacao.uol.com.br/biografias/augusto-dos-anjos.htm |archive-date=28 April 2024 |access-date=25 August 2025 |work=UOL |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

Literary critics are not sure to which literary movement Augusto dos Anjos belong: some say he was a [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] and some say he was a [[Parnassianism|Parnassian]], although [[Ferreira Gullar]] classifies him as being a Pre-Modernist.

==Trivia==
* A recurring character in most of his poems is a [[tamarind]] 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]].<ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9221161&dopt=AbstractPlus Asthma among the famous. Brazilian literary figures. Augusto dos Anjos (1884-1914)]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisourcelang|pt|Autor:Augusto dos Anjos|Augusto dos Anjos (original works in Portuguese)}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051225145251/http://www.vidaslusofonas.pt/augusto_dos_anjos.htm Article about Augusto dos Anjos in Vidas Lusófonas by Paulo Vieira] {{in lang|pt}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Augusto dos Anjos}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2993}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anjos, Augusto Dos}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1914 deaths]]
[[Category:Brazilian male poets]]
[[Category:People from Paraíba]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Minas Gerais]]
[[Category:20th-century Brazilian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Brazilian male writers]]
[[Category:People from Leopoldina, Minas Gerais]]
[[Category:Federal University of Pernambuco alumni]]