QUENTAL, ANTERO de. — Portuguese poet, born in Ponta Delgada on the island of S. Michele (Azores) on 18 April 1842, died there on 11 September 1891.
After a vague youthful intention of entering the priesthood, he attended law courses at Coimbra, where he devoted himself to a passionate study of progressive ideologies, with wide-ranging interests in foreign cultures, German culture above all. Having turned to socialism, he became its propagandist in his country. On the philosophical and literary plane, he led the so-called « School of Coimbra » (1865) and promoted the « Democratic Conferences of the Lisbon Casino » (1871). Through the former he dealt a mortal blow to Romanticism (which still flourished under the guidance of the old blind poet Castilho), while through the latter he introduced into Portuguese life the « progressive » tendencies and tastes characteristic of the second half of the nineteenth century, with attempts to reconcile materialism and spiritualism. Among his most distinctive ideas was that of Iberism, namely, the fusion of the two nations of the peninsula into a federal republic. Embittered by the contrast between his ideals and everyday reality, seriously impaired in health by excessive activity and the intensity of his inner life, and withdrawn into philosophical meditation amid a pessimistic perception of things, he committed suicide.
The poetry of Q., who, having lost his faith, nevertheless feels the need to possess one, achieves a singular transformation of a world of ideas into a world of art. Q.’s inner torment finds relief in his lyric poetry, in crystalline and perfect verse, especially in his later compositions, those of the Odes modernas and, above all, the Sonetos: he restores the sonnet to the height to which Camões had raised it three centuries earlier. Among the sonnets, famous are those in which the poet’s spirit reveals its need for religiosity, at times even in a tendency toward Catholicism: Ideal, À Virgem Santissima, Na mão de Deus.
Giuseppe Carlo Rossi