The Verses of Augusto dos Anjos

I can honestly say that the aesthetic pleasure I experience when reading Augusto dos Anjos’ verses is comparable to what I feel when reading Camões, Dante, or any other poetic greatness. The funny thing is that, technically, Augusto’s poetry breaks all the conventions: syneresis in every verse, words of very difficult pronunciation, and so on. But the vivid and brilliant images that are revealed in each stanza, the explosive expression, the surprise in seeing unexpected and original relationships between apparently disconnected themes, all this seems to generate a more powerful and determining effect than the aesthetic conventions. In Augusto there is a despair, an exacerbated pessimism that borders on the ridiculous but materializes, however, a peerless brilliance.