Antonio Goncalves Dias

Antônio Gonçalves Dias was a Brazilian poet and writer, one of the most important and influential authors of the 19th century in Brazil. He was born in Caxias, Maranhão, in 1823, and studied law at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, where he was exposed to the Romantic movement. He returned to Brazil in 1845 and began his literary career, publishing his first poetry book, Primeiros Cantos, in 1846. He was one of the founders of the Indianist school of poetry, which idealized the indigenous people and culture of Brazil as symbols of national identity and resistance against colonialism. He wrote several poems inspired by the legends and history of the native Brazilians, such as I-Juca-Pirama, Leito de Folhas Verdes, Canção do Tamoio, and Marabá. He also wrote patriotic and lyrical poems, such as Canção do Exílio, Seus Olhos, and Ainda uma Vez, Adeus. He was also a scholar of Brazilian languages and folklore, and wrote a dictionary of the Tupi language. He died in 1864, at the age of 41, in a shipwreck near the coast of Maranhão, while returning from a diplomatic mission in Europe. He is regarded as the national poet of Brazil and one of the greatest representatives of Brazilian Romanticism.