Sabat Ercasty, Carlos (1887–1982)

Carlos Sabat Ercasty (b. 1887; d. 1982), Uruguayan poet, literary critic, and educator. Before teaching literature and mathematics in Montevideo and serving as administrator of the Young Women's Teachers College, he worked as a reporter for El Día and La Razón, both in Montevideo. Sabat Ercasty's prolific poetic production includes more than forty published collections. Early verses—such as the eight volumes of Poemas del hombre (1921–1958)—were characterized by Wagnerian thematic shifts from sensuality to mysticism, with traces of pantheistic musings. Later poetry, dramatic and fluid, treated philosophical issues and Oriental myths; at times a sense of abstract and conceptual stoicism predominated.

Works by Sabat Ercasty that were inspired by historical themes include El charrúa (1957) and Himno a Artigas e Himno de mayo (1964). His major works of poetry are Sonetos de las agonías y los extásis (1977), Parábolas (1978), Cánticos a Euridice (2 vols., 1978–1980), and Antología (2 vols., 1982). His major works of literary criticism are Retratos del fuego: José Zorrilla de San Martín (1958), Retratos del fuego: Carlos Vaz Ferreira (1958), and Retratos del fuego: María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira (1953).

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sarah Bollo, Literatura uruguaya, 1807–1965, vol. 2 (1965).

Gary Lewis Haws, El Prometeo uruguayo: Carlos Sabat Ercasty (1968).

Isabel Sesto Gilardoni, Memoria y sed de Dios en la poesía de Carlos Sabat Ercasty (1983).

Additional Bibliography

García Orallo, María Antonia. La obra poética de Carlos Sabat Ercasty. Burgos: Universidad de Burgos, 2002.

                                     William H. Katra