Best Poets of Classics

Ramón María de las Mercedes de Campoamor y Campoosorio (September 24, 1817 -February 11, 1901), Spanish poet and philosopher, was born at Navia (Asturias) on the 24th of September 1817.

Abandoning his first intention of entering the Jesuit order, he studied medicine at Madrid, found an opening in politics as a supporter of the Moderate party, and, after occupying several subordinate posts, became governor of Castellón de la Plana, of Alicante and of Valencia. His conservative tendencies grew more pronounced with time, and his Polémicas con la Democracia (1862) may be taken as the definitive expression of his political opinions.

His first appearance as a poet dated from 1840, when the Madrid Lyceum of Art and Literature published his Ternezas y flores, a collection of idyllic verses, remarkable for their technical excellence. His Ayes del Alma (1842) and his Fábulas morales y politicas (1842) sustained his reputation, but showed no perceptible increase of power or skill. An epic poem in sixteen cantos, Colón (1853), is no more successful than modern epics usually are.

Campoamor's theatrical pieces, such as El Palacio de la Verdad (1871), Dies Irae (1873), El Honor (1874) and Glorias Humanas (1885), are interesting experiments; but they are totally lacking in dramatic spirit. He always showed a keen interest in metaphysical and philosophic questions, and defined his position in La Filosofia de las leyes (1846), El personalismo, apuntes para una filosofía (1855), La me..