author
Tomás António Gonzaga
1744–1809
A leading voice of 18th-century Luso-Brazilian poetry, he is best known for graceful, intimate verses that helped make Marília de Dirceu a classic. His life as a magistrate, exile, and writer gives his work an extra human pull.
1 Audiobook
Marilia de Dirceo
by Tomás António Gonzaga
About the author
Born in Porto in 1744, Tomás António Gonzaga became one of the best-known neoclassical poets connected with colonial Brazil. He studied law at the University of Coimbra and later served as a magistrate, including in Vila Rica, now Ouro Preto.
His name is most closely linked to Marília de Dirceu, a celebrated sequence of lyrical poems centered on love and longing. Britannica notes that his popularity in Portugal was long second only to that of Luís de Camões, which gives a sense of how widely his work traveled.
Gonzaga's life was shaped by politics as well as literature. He was associated with the Inconfidência Mineira period, was arrested, and was eventually sent to Mozambique, where he spent the rest of his life. He died there around 1810.