born Aug. 10, 1823, Boa Vista, near Caxias, Maranhão, Braz.
died Nov. 3, 1864, off the coast of Maranhão
Brazilian poet.
A respected ethnologist and scholar, he lived much of the time abroad. He drowned at age 41. His songs, collected in First Poems (1847), More Poems (1848), and Last Poems (1851), which display both exuberance and longing, are a celebration of the New World as a tropical paradise. His "Song of Exile" (1843) is known to every Brazilian schoolchild, and he is regarded as the national poet of Brazil.