Luís Vaz de Camoes was a Portuguese poet, considered one of the greatest figures of Lusophone literature. Known mainly for his work The Lusiads, considered the Portuguese epic par excellence.
Camões is the greatest representative of Portuguese Classicism. His works, composed of theatrical plays, lyrical poetry, epics and sonnets, still influence music, cinema and literature.
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Born in 1523 in Lisbon, Camões belonged to the Portuguese high nobility. Little is known about his life, but from a very young age he was introduced to literature, the study of Latin and ancient Portuguese histories.
He was a student at the College of the Convent of Santa Maria, where he acquired a profound knowledge of history, geography and literature.
Everything indicates that he studied theology at the University of Coimbra, but his passage through the academy was not documented. He attended the court of Dom João III and there began his career as a lyric poet.
At court, he fell in love with noble ladies and, possibly, with commoners, in addition to leading a bohemian and turbulent life.
He was arrested several times, fought alongside the Portuguese forces and wrote his best-known work, the nationalist epic The Lusiads.
In Macao, China, he is named provider of the country and, during his stay, he wrote 6 more tales of his epic poem. He died in 1580, very poor, in the city of Lisbon.
After his death, his poetry began to be recognized as valuable and of a high aesthetic standard by several important names. of European literature, gaining prestige, growing among the public and influencing generations of poets in various countries.
However, during his lifetime, Camões complained that the works did not have the prestige they deserved.
Luís de Camões wrote poems, plays and the heroic essence itself, the epic The Lusiads. In this lyrical breadth, he gave himself over to elegies, to villains, to glosses, to redondilhas and also to songs.
These means allowed the poet to express poetry that fused the troubadour with courtesy, which did not prevent him from being ironic and scathing.
He wrote about love and its turmoil, portraying its sweet and bitter side. Due to his experiences outside Portugal, his prisons and exiles, he was led to a feeling of anguish and martyrdom, leading him to feel the nation as irreducible in his writings.
Even with Renaissance influences and lyrical paths, which moved away from Epicureanism and the tranquility of spirit, his life experiences directed him to mannerism, illuminating the art that was made in this arrival from the Modern age.
O Classicism was an artistic movement that emerged in France during the period of Rebirth. This period marks the end of Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age, referring to classical models: Greek and Roman.
All literary styles that prevailed in that period were called classicist, not only in literature, but in all productions. The main characteristics of the classicist movement are:
Love is a fire that burns unseen
Love is a fire that burns unseen,
it's a wound that hurts, and you don't feel it;
is a discontented contentment,
it is pain that goes unnoticed without hurting.It's not wanting more than wanting well;
it's a lonely walk between us;
it's never to settle for content;
it is a care that gains in losing itself.It's wanting to be trapped by will;
it is serving those who win, the winner;
Have someone kill us, loyalty.But how to cause can your favor
in human hearts friendship,
If so contrary to itself is the same love?"
The song titled mount castle, from the group Legião Urbana, refers to the poem above. Check out:
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