João de Deus
| João de Deus Ramos | |
|---|---|
João de Deus Ramos (from O Ocidente, 1878).
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| Born | 8 March 1830 Silves, Portugal |
| Died |
11 January 1896 (aged 65) Lisbon, Portugal |
| Occupation | Poet |
João de Deus Ramos (March 8, 1830 – January 11, 1896), better known as João de Deus, was one of the greatest Portuguese poets of his generation.
He was born in Silves, São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the province of Algarve, son of Pedro José Ramos (son of José dos Ramos and wife Joaquina Maria) and wife Isabel Gertrudes Martins (daughter of Manuel Martins and wife Gertrudes Angélica). Matriculating in the faculty of law at the University of Coimbra, he did not proceed to his degree but settled in the city, dedicating himself wholly to the composition of verses, which circulated among professors and undergraduates in manuscript copies.
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 Coimbra for Beja, where he was appointed editor of O Bejense, the chief newspaper in the province of Alentejo, and four years later he edited the Folha do Sul. As the pungent satirical verses entitled Eleições prove, he was not an ardent politician, and, though he was returned as deputy for the constituency of Silves on April 5, 1868, he acted independently of all political parties and when general elections were called the following year, he did not seek renewal of his mandate. The renunciation implied in the act, which cut him off from all advancement, is in accord with nearly all that is known of his lofty character.
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.
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 dangerously monotonous measure, the Portuguese couplet.
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