Casimiro de Abreu
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Casimiro José Marques de Abreu is a famous Brazilian writer, who was born in Barra de São João, state of Rio de Janeiro, on January 4, 1839 and died in Nova Friburgo, state of Rio de Janeiro, on October 18, 1860. He is one of the best known and most important poets of Brazil. He is best known for his poetry on love of his native land and on romantic love.
The city where he was born, Barra de São João, is now known as Casimiro de Abreu in his honor.
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[edit] Life
Casimiro de Abreu was the son of José Joaquim Marques de Abreu, a Portuguese businessman, and D. Luiza Joaquina das Neves, a farmer's widow. He attended only elementary school in Nova Friburgo before moving to Rio de Janeiro at age 13 to work with his father.
In 1853, Casimiro sailed for Portugal, where he came into contact with the inteligencia of his day, and where he wrote most of his works. In Lisbon his play Camões e o Jaú (Camões and the Javanese) was performed in the D. Fernando Theater in 1856 and published soon afterwards.
In 1857, Casimiro returned to Brazil to work in his father's warehouse, but continued to be involved in the bohemian life. He wrote for several newspapers and became friends with Machado de Assis. Chosen to be part of the then recently founded Brazilian Academy of Letters, he was the patron of its sixth chair.
Suffering from tuberculosis, Casimiro retired to the family farm in Indaiaçu, where he tried to recover his health. He published his collected poetry in 1859 under the title As Primaveras (The Springtimes). He died October 16, 1860 on a farm near the city of his birth.
[edit] His work
Casimiro de Abreu was one of the most popular poets of his day and is still one of the most beloved of all time. Since he lived only twenty-one years, his poetry necessarily reflects a certain youthful perspective that is not merely the affectation of the effusive and sentimental style that often characterized romantic writers.
Much of his poetry was written while he lived in Portugal, where he was separated from his family and friends for four years. That experience engendered genuine feelings of longing for the scenes of his youth and caused him to express, in a touching way, the love he felt for his mother and for his country.
He also wrote of death, nature, God, and romantic love. The last topic likewise reflects an adolescent’s expectation of love, which combines both fear and strong passions.
[edit] Bibliography
- Camões e o Jau (Camões and the Javanese), 1856
- Carolina, novel published in the Lisbon newspaper "O Progresso", numbers 351-52, 1856
- Camila, unfinished novel, 1856
- A virgem loura, Páginas do coração (The Blond Virgin, pages from the heart), poetic prose published in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper "Correio Mercantil", number 334, 1857
- As primaveras (The Springtimes), 1859
[edit] In English Translation
- A Valsa (The Waltz)
- Amor e Medo (Love and Fear)
These are both poems in the book Poets of Brazil. ISBN 0-85051-701-X
