Cesário Verde (25 February 1855 – 19 July 1886) was a 19th-century
Portuguese poet. His work, while mostly ignored during his lifetime and not well known outside of the country's borders even today, is generally considered to be amongst the most important in Portuguese poetry and is widely taught in schools. This is partly due to his being championed by many other authors after his death, notably
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (; ; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th c ...
.
Biography
José Joaquim Cesário Verde was born in
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
. His father was a shopkeeper and exporter of fruit products. He also had a small farm on the outskirts, at which Verde's family resided during the summer. In 1857, an outbreak of the plague lead his father to permanently move the family to the country, where they lived until coming back to Lisbon in 1865. This early contact with the countryside instilled in Verde a deep love of nature, which would show up repeatedly in his poems about life in the country, almost always depicted in a bucolic, idyllic light.
Verde, the oldest of four children, started working at his father's shop at an early age; all accounts of his family life point towards him having been brought up in a household that mostly cherished the middle class work ethic. In 1872, his sister Julia died of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
– the grief over this loss is considered by many critics to have had a big impact on his literary work, as his poems frequently deal with the sickly, often portrayed in the guise of beautiful, innocent women. The autobiographical poem ''“Nós”'' makes explicit mention of his sister's death.
Not much is known of his academic pursuits, though he did enroll in an institute of higher learning in 1873; he dropped out, however, before completing any of his exams. The tenure did result in him meeting
Silva Pinto, who would go on to become his lifelong friend and, after his death, the publisher of his works. In the same year, he made public his first poems, in the local paper ''
Diário de Notícias
() is a Portuguese weekly newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal.
History and profile
''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in Lisbon on 29 December 1 ...
''. It would prove to be the first of about forty to be released in various publications during his lifetime. During his life, Verde carried on the commercial profession of his father, only dedicating himself to poetry in his free time.
In 1874, he published the poem ''“Esplêndida”'', which garnered him a negative review by the noted Portuguese critic and social commentator
Ramalho Ortigão. In his satirical magazine ''
As Farpas'': Ortigão remarked that the young poet should show himself "more Cesário, less Verde" ("verde" in Portuguese meaning "unripe", i.e. inexperienced, and the mention of “Cesário” being a play on Verde's name descending from the Roman
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...
.) This deeply hurt Verde, who in fact during his lifetime would frequently complain about the indifference which greeted his work – though he and Ortigão would later become friends.
In 1877, Verde for the first time showed symptoms associated with tuberculosis, the same illness that killed his sister and that, in 1882, also sent his brother, Joaquim Tomás, to the grave. During these latter years, his interest in writing also diminished. His health deteriorated steadily. He died on July 19, 1886, in Lisbon.
Poetic profile
Cesário Verde is frequently hailed as both one of Portugal's finest urban poets and one of the country's greatest describers of the countryside. Thus, Verde's poems (always written in the
alexandrine
Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Ro ...
structure) are mostly split into “city poems” and “countryside poems” (the few that escape these two categories dealing with love, often scorned.)
Cesário Verde's city poems are often described as bohemian, decadent and socially aware. He is hailed as Portugal's first great realist poet, frequently dealing with scenes of poverty, disease and moral decay. His poems also frequently deal with spleen and ennui. In ''"
O Sentimento dum Ocidental"'' (''"The Feeling of a Westerner"''), Verde captures the atmosphere of decadence then growing in Portuguese society, comparing the past discoveries and expeditions of Portugueses sailors, as well as the works of national poet
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões (; or 1525 – 10 June 1580), sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns ( ), is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of William Shakes ...
, to the present. He also expresses a longing to experience a larger world beyond the city, pining for ''“Madrid, Paris, Berlim, S. Petersburgo, o mundo!”'' (''“Madrid, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, the world!”'')
While the city is corrupt and decaying, the countryside in Verde's poetry is described as lively, fertile and full of beauty. Even the growing industrialization of agriculture isn't seen as a worrying factor, as this passage from ''“De Verão”'' (''“In The Summer”'') shows:
''“E perguntavas sobre os últimos inventos''
''Agrícolas. Que aldeias tão lavadas!''
''Bons ares! Boa luz! Bons alimentos!''
''Olha: os saloios vivos, corpulentos''
''Como nos fazem grandes barretadas”''
(“''And you asked about the latest inventions''
''In agriculture. What well-washed villages!''
''Good airs! Good light! Good food!''
''Look: the countrymen alive, corpulent''
''What great hat-drops they give us!”'')
The autobiographical poem ''“Nós”'' gives an idyllic description of Verde’s youth living on the farm – latter poems show the countryside as the peaceful setting for picnics, and as an opportunity for long walks with female companionship. Whilst in his “city” poems Verde describes spleen and disease, in his descriptions of the countryside the protagonists are often strong, happy and robust.
Influences and legacy
In his poetry, Cesário Verde references
Balzac,
Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...
and
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...
. His letters also contain quotes from
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
,
Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
,
Taine and
Quinet. On a national level, the authors referenced are
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões (; or 1525 – 10 June 1580), sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns ( ), is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of William Shakes ...
and
João de Deus.
Although he was never very celebrated during his lifetime, Verde did socialize with many of the country’s foremost literary figures (some of these meetings may be attributed to Verde’s republican sympathies, then highly in vogue amongst the country’s intellectuals.)
Fialho de Almeida is said to have greatly admired him, and other acquaintances include
Guerra Junqueiro
Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro (, 17 September 1850 – 7 July 1923) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese top civil servant, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author, and poet. His work helped inspire the creation of ...
,
Ramalho Ortigão,
Gomes Leal,
João de Deus,
Abel Botelho and the painter
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro.
After his death, Verde’s reputation has steadily grown. He was particularly embraced by Portuguese modernists such as
Mário de Sá-Carneiro and
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (; ; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th c ...
(whose heteronyms
Álvaro de Campos,
Alberto Caeiro and Bernardo Soares praise Verde.) More modern admirers include
Eugénio de Andrade and
Adolfo Casais Monteiro
Published work
During his lifetime, Cesário Verde published around forty poems in various papers. After his death, his friend Silva Pinto published “The Book Of Cesário Verde”, collecting his poems. The first edition was published in April 1887 – two hundred copies were printed, to be dispensed as gifts only. The compilation was only made available commercially in 1901. More recent editions have respected the order in which the poems were first compiled, but added others that weren’t included in the first selection. The book now includes Verde’s entire poetic oeuvre.
References
Further reading
*''O Livro De Cesário Verde'' (Biblioteca Ulisseia, 1999), introduction by Maria Ema Tarracha Ferreira
*''A Poesia Portuguesa Contemporânea'', Adolfo Casais Monteiro
External links
Cesário Verde at Lusonet*
*
*
Instituto Camões pageCesário Verde at Poetry International Web
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verde, Cesario
1855 births
1886 deaths
19th-century Portuguese poets
19th-century Portuguese male writers
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Writers from Lisbon
Portuguese male poets
Portuguese people of Italian descent
Tuberculosis deaths in Portugal