Cesário Verde: A Portrait of The Poet as A Painter

Reading Notes II

Abstract

Cesário Verde portrays, in his verses, the rawness of reality, to which never escapes a certain somewhat fantastical subjectivity. The way in which images of reality are transmitted to the reader leads us to consider Cesário Verde as a poet-painter. Cesário Verde is inspired by Baudelaire whose influence is noticeable mainly in the way he portrays the city, love, and women. Literature and painting come together in a cinematisation of daily life, whose soul the poet intends to capture. By describing his own process of poetic labour Cesário Verde unveils his search for stylistic precision, his cult of form, fully assuming the identity of poet-painter.