This Azorian born on the island of São Miguel is one of the leading names of modern Portuguese poetry and beyond, he was also a philosopher and one of the most active voices in social revolution that culminated with the establishment of the Republic. This is just a simple tribute to one of the great figures of Portuguese culture in the year in which the 5th of October 1910 returned to be holiday.
Pantheism
I
Aspiration ... opens all desire
In unsuffered and mysterious longing ...
I call this the life, and thus,
What matters most the form? Silence
A soul aspires to light and the space
A man equally a star and a rose!
The own beast, whose uncertain step
There vacancy in the grottos grounds,
Surely glimpse God - his spleen eye
It was done to see brilliance and beauty ...
And if roars, is that shakes dully
Your turbid soul, Oh great nature!
Yes, there is the roar of burning life,
An intimate energy, so holy
Like the one that makes trill the innocent bird...
The work of Antero Quental definitely breaks with the current ultra-romanticism of the time and Modern Odes, which is his first poetry book, is the perfect example of the new modern Portuguese literature that emerged in the late nineteenth century. This book is particularly important because it was published in the year of the famous Coimbrã question, a literary controversy, led by a group of young writers which Antero was one of the most active voices, which argued that the ultra-Romantic literature era vision was exceeded by the new winds of modernity that stretched across Europe. Modern Odes turns out to be a work that reflects a new, more realistic style of literature, with a certain revolutionary tone that addresses the social realities of the Portugal of then making the counterpoint with the modern man turmoil, his own internal struggle between faith and reason. The book also underlies the socialist ideal that would bring progress to the nation and the concept of a new world more just and equal. More than a writer, Antero de Quental is the personification of the new modern Portuguese man, who breaks out definitively through his political activism, in addition to his sharp and provocative writing in newspapers and magazines, with the "status quo" prevailing in a country in the brink of ideological, economic and social disruption which later resulted in a young republic. Unfortunately, this great figure of Portuguese culture, did not live long enough to see this new nation since he committed suicide in September 1891 with 49 years of age, if he had resisted his inner demons 19 years later probably would have seen with his own eyes, the implementation of the republican Portugal.
