VERDE, CESRIO

born Feb. 25, 1855, Lisbon, Port. died July 18, 1886, Lisbon in full Jos Joaquim Cesrio Verde poet who revived Portuguese poetry by introducing colloquial language and by exploring its capacity for expression at a time when exalted rhetoric was the accepted style. He dealt extensively with themes pertaining to the growth of urban life. Born into a well-to-do middle-class family, Verde studied at the faculty of arts of the University of Lisbon but left without a degree. Adopting a bohemian life-style, he nevertheless earned a living as a fruit farmer and businessman, publishing poetry in newspapers and literary magazines sporadically until his early death from tuberculosis. After his death, a friend, the literary critic Antnio da Silva Pinto, collected and published his poems as O livro de Cesrio Verde 18731886 (1887; The Book of Cesrio Verde).