Who was Almeida Garrett?The poet, prose writer and playwright, João Batista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, better known as Almeida Garrett, was born in the city of Porto in Portugal on February 4, 1799. He wrote the first works, “Camões” (1825) and “Dona Branca” (1826), referring to Romanticism in Portuguese literature and theater.
The theme of the first most famous literary romantic work, “Camões”, deals with the life of the also writer Portuguese, Luís de Camões, and, in particular, the moments when he wrote the classic “Os Lusíadas”.
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During the period of Napoleonic invasion in Portugal, Almeida Garrett moved with his family to the archipelago of the Azores, on Terceira Island, where, as a teenager, he began his first studies of romance in literature. It should be noted that, from an early age, the poet showed a taste for literature and politics.
With liberal ideals, he fought against absolutism and was exiled more than once. Like many writers, he used journalism to convey his ideas.
In 1816, Almeida Garrett returned to mainland Portugal and began studying law at the University of Coimbra. In that year he wrote his first poems with characteristics of arcade, which were gathered in a work called “Lírica de João Mínimo”.
In 1821, the poet completed his course in Coimbra and published the poem “Retrato de Vênus”. The work was considered a threat to the morals and good customs of the Portuguese people and, therefore, the poet had to respond to a judicial process that accused him of atheism and immorality.
Due to his participation in the Liberal Revolution of Porto, in 1823, Almeida Garrett went into exile in England with his wife Luisa Midosi. In 1824, he went to France, where he worked as a commercial correspondent in Havre. During this period Garrett read Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Walter Scott and other English authors, thus coming into contact with the Romantic movement. It was in Paris that the poet published “Camões”.
Back in Portugal, with the victory of the liberal cause, the writer is appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the country. However, in 1828 Garrett returned to England, due to the reestablishment of the absolutist regime by D. Miguel. Only in 1832 did he return to the city of Porto as a fighter for the liberal cause.
The writer was elected deputy in 1845. In 1851 he was appointed to write the instructions for the electoral law project and then to the reform commission of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences. That same year, the author received the title of Viscount. In 1852, he was again elected deputy and, for a short time, held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Almeida Garrett died in Lisbon, Portugal, on December 9, 1854, aged 55.
Portuguese romantic poetry presented two distinct moments, to the first belong Garrett, Alexandre Herculano and Castilho, poets who tried to introduce medieval, historical and mystical motifs into the domain poetic. The second moment, which appears in the middle of the 19th century, is called ultra romantic poetry, whose main representatives are Camilo Castelo Branco and Soares de Passos.
With patriotic-themed texts, Almeida Garrett became known for his work in poetry and theater. In his works it is possible to notice a mixture of classic and popular content. A hallmark of his work is the fact that the narrator communicates with the reader, as happens in the books of the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis.
Check out some works by Almeida Garrett:
portrait of venus
Venus, gentle Venus! - sweeter and sweeter
Sound this name, O august Nature.
Loves, graces, fly around him,
Gird him the zone, which bewitches the eyes;
That ignites hearts, that souls surrender.
Come, O beautiful Cypria, oh! Comes from Olympus,
Comes with a magic smile, with a tender kiss,
Make me a vate, deify my lyre. (…)
In dramaturgy, the works “Um Auto de Gil Vicente” (first romantic play by the author published in 1842), “O Alfageme de Santarém” (1842), “Frei Luís de Souza” (a tragedy, masterpiece of Portuguese romantic dramaturgy, 1844) and “D. Filipa de Vilhena” (1846).
In prose, Almeida Garrett elevates this literary genre through travel narrative, writing prose fiction, among them: “O Arco de Santana”, historical novel (1845-1850), “Travels in My Land” (1843-1845) based on an excursion the author took to Santarém. In the work, the author reports, in an essay style, the narrative of the journey, interspersed with comments about everything he observed.
Fallen Leaves, published in 1853, is the last of Garrett's lyrical works and the best of his love compositions. They are poems inspired by the belated passion for Maria Rosa, wife of the Viscount of Luz. In them, the author portrays the true aspects of love that depart from sensual desires to materialize through feelings, as in the poetry “When I Sonhava”.
When I Dreamed
When I dreamed it was like this
That I saw her in my dreams,
And that's how I ran away,
I just woke up
That fleeting image,
That I could never reach.
Now that I'm awake,
Now I see her fix...
For what? – When it was vacant,
An idea, a thought,
An uncertain star ray
In the immense firmament,
A chimera, a vain dream,
I dreamed – but I lived:
Pleasure did not know what it was,
But pain, I didn't know it...
