João Lúcio

João Lúcio

João Lúcio Pousão Pereira (born July 4, 1880 in Olhão , Algarve ; † October 27, 1918 ibid) was a Portuguese poet and politician, one of the native poets of the Algarve.

Life

João Lúcio, nephew of the painter Henrique Pousão , was born into a large landowner family. As a child he attended a grammar school in Faro and at the age of 12 he published his first poem in the newspaper O Olharense . This was followed by a study of law in Coimbra , which he completed in 1902 with an exam and admission to the bar. Until his death he worked as a respected lawyer in his hometown. His fellow students included such well-known names as Teixeira de Pascoaes , Augusto Gil and Afonso Lopes Vieira . He founded the student magazine Ecos de Academia in Coimbra, and in 1899 the magazine O Reino de Algarve .

Politically he was an ardent monarchist and friends with the politician and later Prime Minister João Franco . In 1906 he was elected to the Portuguese parliament, the Cortes , for one year . He was also the Prime Minister's official press spokesman. Later he was mayor of the city of Olhão for a few months. In this capacity he tried to improve the living conditions, especially of ordinary citizens, in the social, educational, health and cultural sectors.

As a poet, the Algarve was the most important topic for him, which is why he is sometimes called the “national poet of the Algarve”, and rightly he is one of the most important homeland poets of this region alongside António Aleixo . In his verses he sang above all the light, the sea, the earth and the Algarve in general and often let himself be carried away to hymn-pathetic chants. His work stands between neogarrettismo and neorealism and basically cannot be assigned to any specific genre. Later, after a trip to Italy, books were written about the travel experiences. He contributed a poem for the legendary magazine "A Aguia".

Chalet and death

A severe blow of fate changed the poet's life forever: his only and most beloved son fell out of a window as a toddler and died as a toddler - due to an inattention on the part of the boy's grandmother. Lúcio never recovered from this shock. He withdrew completely from the public and began building a chalet , the Chalets de Marim , located in a pine forest at the gates of the city of Olhao . This comparable to the Quita da Regaleira in Sintra , representing neo- symbolist architecture in Portugal, became his retreat, his spiritual refuge, as he called it. There he wrote many poems and focused on nature and soul. The chalet is square, consists of three floors and has four stairs for access. A symbolistic skylight completes this eccentric building. The stairs are shaped like a snake, a guitar, a violin and a fish.

On October 27, 1918, João Lúcio died at the age of 38 from the effects of a lung infection as a result of an epidemic raging in the city .

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• Descendo , lyric poetry, 1901.
• O meu Algarve , poetry, 1905.
• Na asa do sonho , poetry, 1913.
• Impressões de Viagens (travel book), undated
• Vento de Levante , (travel book), undated
• Espalhando fantasmas , poetry, 1921, (posthumous).

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