The directory «Plots»

Dias Antonio Gonçalves
(1823—1864)

Antônio Gonçalves Dias was a Brazilian lyric poet. Dias was born near the town of Caxias, in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. He attended the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. He returned to his native province ill in 1845, well-equipped with legal lore. The literary tendency which was strong within him, however, which led him to try his fortune as an author at Rio de Janeiro. There, he wrote for the newspaper press, appeared as a dramatist, and in 1846 established his reputation by a volume of poems called Primeiros Cantos (First Chants), which appealed to the national feelings of his Brazilian readers. They were remarkable for their autobiographic impress and by their beauty of expression and rhythm placed their author at the head of the lyric poets of his country. In 1848 he followed up his success with Segundos Cantos e Sextilhas de Frei Antão (Second Chats and Sextilles of Friar Antão), in which, as the title indicates, he puts a number of the pieces in the mouth of a simple old Dominican friar. In the following year, in fulfilment of the duties of his new post as professor of Brazilian history in the Imperial College of Pedro II at Rio de Janeiro, he published an edition of the Annaes Históricos do Maranhão and added a sketch of the migrations of the Indian tribes.

A third volume of poems, which appeared with the title of Últimos Cantos (Last Chants) in 1851, was practically the poet's last works, for he spent the next eight years engaged under government patronage in studying the state of public instruction in the north and the educational institutions of Europe. On his return to Brazil in 1860, he was appointed a member of an expedition for the exploration of the province of Ceará, was forced in 1862 by the state of his health to try the effects of another visit to Europe, and died in September 1864, the vessel that was carrying him being wrecked off his native shores. While in Leipzig, Germany he published a complete collection of his lyrical poems (which went through several editions), the four first chants of an epic poem called Os Timbiras (1857) and a Dicionário da Lingua Tupi (1858). One of his most famous poems, "Ainda uma vez, adeus" is supposed to have been inspired by an ill-fated love affair with an aristocratic woman whose family opposed the relationship because of his mulatto heritage.

Brazil, 1965, Antonio Dias

Brazil, 1973, Antonio Dias