Sousândrade (or Joaquim de Sousa Andrade) was born on July 9, 1832, in the city of Alcântara, in Maranhão. He later studied in Rio de Janeiro and also at the Sorbonne University in France. He was a supporter of abolition and the republic. The author lived more than ten years in the United States.
O poetwho died on April 21, 1902, in São Luís, is part of the third phase of Brazilian Romanticism, with poetry of a social naturetherefore more realistic. However, it is considered, by some scholars, as belonging to the second romantic generation, despite its masterpiece wandering quesa be a forerunner of modern poetry.
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Summary about Sousândrade
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The Brazilian writer Sousândrade was born in 1832 and died in 1902.
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In addition to being a writer, he was mayor of São Luís do Maranhão.
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He is part of the third phase of Romanticism in Brazil.
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His texts have social criticism and little idealization.
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His most famous book is the epic poem wandering quesa.
Biography of Sousândrade
Sousândrade (or Joaquim de Sousa Andrade) was born on July 9, 1832, in Alcântara, Maranhão. He was the son of farmers and had a rich childhood.. Later, his life would be marked by trips to places like:
The author, an abolitionist and republican, Studied at the Sorbonne University, in France, where he started the Mining Engineering course. He also began to study medicine in Rio de Janeiro, but he did not complete any of these courses. Years later, he lived in New York, United States.
He resided in this American city for the first time from 1871 to 1878, then from 1880 to 1884. To the United States, accompanied the writer by his wife Mariana de Almeida e Silva, in addition to their two daughters. Maria Bárbara, the couple’s daughter, studied at a Catholic school in New York.
Vana (Valentina Sousa Andrade) was Sousândrade’s “natural daughter”, that is, the result of his other relationship. Later, in the 1890s, the writer, separated from his wife, lived in Quinta da Vitória, while his ex-wife and daughters lived in the Colégio de Indústria, in São Luís, where Vana was a teacher and her sister, director.
In the United States, from 1975 onwards, the poet was editor and vice-president of the journal The new World. In Brazil, with the Proclamation of the Republic, he was mayor of São Luís, participated in the elaboration of the Republican Constitution of Maranhão and designed the flag of the state of Maranhão. The author died on April 21, 1902, in São Luís do Maranhão.
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Works by Sousândrade
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wild harps (1857)
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poetic works (1874)
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wandering quesa (1884)
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golden harp (1889)
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New Eden (1893)
See too: José de Alencar — one of the main representatives of romanticism in Brazil
Poems by Sousândrade
In the poem “Canção de Cusset”, from the book wild harpsthe lyrical self talks to a woman, whom he calls “moreninha”, and presents a more realistic perspective of love, a recurrent theme in Brazilian Romanticism, since it understands that it only maintains itself with physical beauty and youth. That said, the poetic voice manifests its desire not to love, since such a feeling is fleeting.
If you were, brunette, always beautiful,
As beautiful as you are today at this age,
I went to try if love lasts,
Loving you so much.
I know love exists while it shines
The flower of resplendent youth;
But who soon dies, when the years
They are withering away.
The dream that lulls us at night
In vague strangeness undreamed of,
It goes out with the sun — breaking through the clouds,
He is what he is:
Don’t you know, brunette, that love
Are they stars of this sky of our time?
It is night that, passing beyond the dawn
Leave the memory?
I don’t want to love, I don’t want to feel
The pain that always hurts, that always lasts
Of what passed so sweetly
And so quickly!
Know more: Condoreirism — name given to the third romantic generation
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“The African Prince
In the long poem “The African Prince”, also from the book wild harpsthe lyrical self shows the dialogue between two lovers in African lands. O prince goes away, leaving his beloved to suffer, and dies in a shipwreck:
“Beautiful slave of my soul,
From your prince lady,
Farewell — the island awaits me,
The crimson dawn is already breaking.”
“No, O prince, do not flee
From the shadow of the date palm:
Only with you, how sweet
Rest on this riverside!
Look, the beach is so deserted,
This beach is so deserted…
I see the sea lion bloodthirsty
With your crystal mane.”
“Daughter of the starless night
O daughter of mine, Nydah!
Blossom of the sycamore green,
Sahara sunny days,
A thousand men lead the war
On the shores of Senegal:
In irons I will bring a thousand men
On these paths of salt.
When the moon walks three times,
Coming after to be born,
From your untied arms
In my arms you will owe yourself.”
He already sees himself on the way,
Life in death is;
But, you see yourself alive: wait!
Shouts «O soul of Nydah!»
Nobody knows where the reed
Did it pull over —
Shipwrecked, on enemy land,
On the shores of overseas:
Said to be the prince’s soul
What futures come to tell:
Lost their king, their tribe
Highlands of Dakar.
Cover of the book “Guesa errante”, by Sousândrade, published by Valer.
Wandering Guesa, or simply The Guesa, is Sousândrade’s masterpiece. That epic poem is divided into 13 cantos (VI, VII, XII and XIII were unfinished), written between 1858 and 1884. This narrative in decasyllable verses tells the story of the legendary Guesa Errante, a kind of indigenous Ulysses on his odyssey around the world.
Young Guesa, the protagonist, is of Colombian origin. As the mythological hero Bochica did, he is fated to go on a pilgrimage and then be sacrificed in honor of the sun god. the poem is centered on indigenous culture, but also considers that of the colonizer. For this, it uses myths and historical facts.
That innovative narrative, full of neologisms and with autobiographical traits, starts in the Andes. However, the hero will get to know the Amazon Forest, Brazil, Europe, Africa and also New York:
Come to New-York, where there’s room for everyone,
Homeland, if not oblivion, — belief,
Rest, and forgiveness of immense pain,
And being reborn to the struggle of the brave.
The work has elements that deviate from Romanticism.. One of them is the fact that the protagonist is not a Brazilian Indian. That way, there is emphasis not on nationalism, but on pan-americanism. Furthermore, the idealization of the Indian is not seen, and the real problems of indigenous peoples are shown.
Read too: Casimiro de Abreu — nostalgic poet of the second romantic generation
Sousândrade’s literary style
Sousândrade is a third-generation romantic poetwhose works have the following characteristics:
However, as his first work was published in 1857, some critics place him in the second romantic generation. Furthermore, the concretists Augusto de Campos and Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003), who rediscovered the author in the 20th century, consider him forerunner of modern poetry.
Video lesson on the third generation of romanticism in Brazil (Poetry)
image credits
Valer Publisher (reproduction)
By Warley Souza
Literature Teacher