Between Barbarian screams and newspapers: the poetic life of Moacyr de Almeida

Abstract

Moacyr de Almeida (1902-1925), at a very young age, between 1916 and 1925, became a renowned poet, a constant presence in the Carioca press, where he also worked, through news of events and recitals, or through written and printed poetry. He died on May 1, 1925, at the age of 23, and, with the help of friends, his brother Pádua de Almeida, also a journalist and poet, published in September of the same year the book that the dead poet had left organized called, Gritos Bárbaros. The book edition is posthumous; in the author's lifetime, there were only poems printed in newspapers. The comparison between the posthumous impression and those in life sometimes highlights the existence of significant differences. There is, then, an ecdotic problem to be analysed: is it privileged to publish the poems in book form, under the blind trust of the brother's authority? Or is the edition of these poems privileged as they were published with the poet in life? And yet, are these publications in periodicals a case of elimination, as the three editions of the poet's work, without effective critical concern, dealt with? This work begins with the aim of announcing the beginning of a critical edition of the work of the poet from Rio de Janeiro.