Selected Shorter Poems

<p>Luís Vaz de Camões (ca.1524/25-1580) is reckoned the greatest poet in the Portuguese language granting him a position in the national literature akin to that of Dante Shakespeare or Goethe. He wrote a considerable amount of lyric poetry and at least three dramas but is best remembered for his epic poem <em>Os Lusíadas</em> (The Lusiads) which set out to be and succeeded in being a Portuguese epic of the nation that can stand alongside Virgil's <em>Aeneid</em>. As Jonathan Griffin ably demonstrates in this volume however his shorter works mostly sonnets and <em>redondilhas</em> (roundels) are fine lyrics and ought to be given the same serious attention that the epic receives as of right. Little is known of Camões' life other than what we see reported in the Lusiads but we do know that he served as a common soldier in the East serving in India Africa and Macau.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>