João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos
João de Deus Ramos | |
---|---|
Born | 8 March 1830 |
Died | 11 January 1896 | (aged 65)
Occupation | Poet |
João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos (8 March 1830 – 11 January 1896), better known as João de Deus, was a
Biography
He was born in
In the volume of his art, as in the conduct of life, he practised a rigorous self-control. He printed nothing previous to 1855, and the first of his poems to appear in a separate form was A Lata, in 1860. In 1862 he left
In the year of his election as deputy, his friend José António Garcia Blanco collected from local journals the series of poems, Flores do campo, which is supplemented by the Ramo de flores (1869). This is João de Deus' masterpiece.[1]
Pires de Marmelada (1869) is an improvisation of no great merit. The four theatrical pieces -- Amemos o nosso próximo, Ser apresentado, Ensaio de Casamento, and A viúva inconsolável—are prose translations from Méry, cleverly done, but not worth the doing. Horácio e Lydia (1872), a translation from Pierre de Ronsard, is a good example of artifice in manipulating that monotonous measure, the Portuguese couplet.[1]
He married Guilhermina das Mercês Battaglia, born in
As an indication of a strong spiritual reaction three prose fragments (1873) Anna, Mãe de Maria, A Virgem Maria and A Mulher do Levita de Ephraim translated from Darboy's Femmes de la Bible, are full of significance. The Folhas soltas (1876) is a collection of verse in the manner of Flores do campo, brilliantly effective and exquisitely refined.[1]
Within the next few years the writer turned his attention to educational problems, and in his Cartilha maternal (1876) first expressed the conclusions to which his study of
He died in
Poetry
Next to
Teófilo Braga has noted five stages of development in João de Deus' artistic life: the imitative, the idyllic, the lyric, the pessimistic and the devout phases. Under each of these divisions is included much that is of extreme interest, especially to contemporaries who have passed through the same succession of emotional experience, and it is highly probable that Caturras and Gaspar, pieces as witty as anything in Bocage but free from Bocage's coarse impiety, will always interest literary students. But it is as the singer of love that João de Deus will delight posterity as he delighted his own generation. The elegiac music of Rachel and of Marina, the melancholy of Adeus and of Remoinho, the tender and sincerity of Meu casto lírio, of Lágrima celeste, of Descale and a score more songs are distinguished by the large, vital simplicity which withstands time. It is precisely in the quality of unstudied simplicity that João de Deus is incomparably strong. The temptations to a display of virtuosity are almost irresistible for a Portuguese poet; he has the tradition of virtuosity in his blood, he has before him the example of all contemporaries, and he has at hand an instrument of wonderful sonority and compass. Yet not once is João de Deus clamorous or rhetorical, not once does he indulge in idle ornament. His prevailing note is that of exquisite sweetness and of reverent purity; yet with all his caressing softness he is never sentimental, and, though he has not the strength for a long fight, emotion has seldom been set to more delicate music. Had he included among his other gifts the gift of selection, had he continued the poetic discipline of his youth instead of dedicating his powers to a task which, well as he performed it, might have been done no less well by a much lesser man, there is scarcely any height to which he might not have risen.[3]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Fitzmaurice-Kelly 1911, p. 116.
- ^ Fitzmaurice-Kelly 1911, pp. 116–117.
- ^ a b c d Fitzmaurice-Kelly 1911, p. 117.
References
- public domain: Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James (1911). "Deus, João de". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 116–117. This work in turn cites:
- Maxime Formont, Le Mouvement poétique contemporain en Portugal (Lyon, 1892)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Works by João de Deus at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos at Internet Archive
- New International Encyclopedia. 1905. .