José Joaquim Cesário Verde

José Joaquim Cesário Verde was born in Lisbon. 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 – 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 life-long 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”. 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 “green”, i.e. inexperienced, and the mention of “Cesário” being a play on Verde’s name descending from the Roman Caesar.) 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, and Cesario Verde died on July 19, 1886.