The circumstances of Delmira Agustini's death at the hands of her former husband distracted, for a long time, attention that would have been otherwise given to her literary production. For years Agustini was considered one of the most representative figures of what some critics have labeled as Postmodernismo, and was regularly compared to and associated with other contemporary women poets such as the Chilean Gabriela Mistral, the Argentinean Alfonsina Storni, and the Uruguayan Juana de Ibarbourou. Other names can be added to this list of women who have received little attention: the Nicaraguan Rosa Umaña Espinoza; the Panamanian María Olimpia de Obaldía; the Cubans María Luisa Milanés, María Villar Buceta, and Emilia Bernal; and the Venezuelan Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 24 October 1886, Delmira Agustini Murtfeldt was the daughter of a typical bourgeois family...