Delmira Agustini (October 24, 1886 – July 6, 1914) was an Uruguayan poet of the early 20th century.

Biography

Born in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern c ...

, Uruguay, she began writing when she was ten and had her first book of poems published when she was still a teenager. She wrote for the magazine ''La Alborada'' (The Dawn). She formed part of the Generation of 1900, along with Julio Herrera y Reissig, Leopoldo Lugones and

Horacio Quiroga Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza (31 December 1878 – 19 February 1937) was a Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer. He wrote stories which, in their jungle settings, used the supernatural and the bizarre to show the struggle of m ...

. Rubén Darío, a Nicaraguan poet, was an important influence for her. She looked up to him as a teacher. Darío compared Agustini to

Teresa of Ávila Teresa of Ávila, OCD (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada; 28 March 15154 or 15 October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Active during t ...

, stating that Agustini was the only woman writer since the saint to express herself as a woman. She specialized in the topic of female sexuality during a time when the literary world was dominated by men. Agustini's writing style is best classified in the first phase of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, with themes based on fantasy and exotic subjects.

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earl ...

, god of love, symbolizes eroticism and is the inspiration to Agustini's poems about carnal pleasures. Eros is the protagonist in many of Agustini's literary works. She even dedicated her third book to him titled ''Los Cálices Vacíos'' (Empty Chalices) in 1913, which was acclaimed as her entrance into a new literary movement, "La Vanguardia" (The Vanguard).

Personal life and death

She married Enrique Job Reyes on August 14, 1913. Their divorce was finalized on June 5, 1914. A month after that, Reyes fatally shot Agustini twice in the head and afterwards committed suicide. She died in her house in

, Uruguay. She is buried in the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.

Bibliography

* 1907: ''El libro blanco''Web page title
"Delmira Agustini"
at the Universitat Jaume's "Modernismo en España e Hispanoamérica" website. Retrieved September 1, 2011. * 1910: ''Cantos de la mañana'' * 1913: ''Los cálices vacíos, pórtico de Rubén Darío'' * 1924: ''Obras completas'' ("Complete Works"): Volume 1, ''El rosario de Eros''; Volume 2: ''Los astros del abismo'', posthumously published (died 1914), Montevideo, Uruguay: Máximo García * 1944: ''Poesías'', prologue by Luisa Luisi (Montevideo, Claudio García & Co.) * 1971: ''Poesías completas'', prólogue and notes by Manuel Alvar, Barcelona: Editorial Labor

Works translated into other languages

Valerie Martínez has translated many of Agustini's poems into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Some of Agustini's poems are translated into Nepali by Suman Pokhrel, and collected in an anthology titled Manpareka Kehi Kavita..

References

External links

*Cathy L. Jrad
"Modernization, Feminism, and Delmira Agustini"
Vanderbilt University *Judy Veramendi

a novel and play based on the life and writings of Delmira Agustini. {{DEFAULTSORT:Agustini, Delmira 19th-century Uruguayan poets Uruguayan people of Italian descent 1886 births 1914 deaths Uruguayan murder victims Deaths by firearm in Uruguay People murdered in Uruguay Burials at the Central Cemetery of Montevideo Uruguayan women poets 20th-century Uruguayan poets 20th-century Uruguayan women writers 19th-century Uruguayan women writers 19th-century Uruguayan writers Murder–suicides in South America 1914 murders in Uruguay 1+1 (TV channel) people