Flowers of the Field

João de Deus (João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 86K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Flores do Campo by João de Deus. Author: Deus, João de, 1830-1896. Language: Portuguese. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Dec 23, 2008

Editor's review

Flores do Campo (Flowers of the Field) is a poetry collection by the Portuguese poet João de Deus (1830–1896), released free in the original Portuguese by Project Gutenberg. Deus wrote of rural scenes and everyday feelings in plain, musical language; his work is often seen as representative of the popular vein of nineteenth-century Portuguese lyric poetry and is well suited to studying how poetry draws rhythm and imagery from folk song. This is a public-domain electronic text with no modern notes or translation, so reading it is closer to consulting the original document. Its value lies not in plot progression but in the natural scenery, religious feeling and faint nostalgia that recur in its short pieces, making it useful material for poetry appreciation, Portuguese study or comparative literature. Readers are advised to enter it slowly and aloud rather than trying to finish it in one sitting; those unfamiliar with Portuguese may consult a reliable translation or reference works for key vocabulary, then return to the original to observe its rhythm and diction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Portuguese majors who need original nineteenth-century poetry texts as corpus material
Poetry lovers who want to understand the relationship between Portuguese lyric poetry and folk song
Comparative literature researchers interested in rural writing of the Romantic period
Intermediate and advanced Portuguese learners who want to build vocabulary and language sense through short poems

Not a good fit for

General readers with no Portuguese who are unwilling to use a translation
Novel readers expecting continuous narrative or plot progression
Academic readers who need modern annotations, introductions and detailed biographical scholarship

Reading tips

Read through one group of short poems first, mark recurring natural images, then look back at how the poet organizes rhythm.
Read several poems aloud to feel the metre and rhyme, then check your understanding against a translation.
Group the poems on religious and rural themes, and make thematic excerpts and comparisons.
When you meet an unfamiliar word, guess from context first and then check a dictionary, preserving the continuity of reading.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this book without knowing Portuguese?

You can try, but you will need a translation or translation tools. The original is Portuguese poetry, and the Gutenberg edition includes no translation or notes, so reading it directly is demanding. It is best to find a reliable bilingual edition, or first read selected translations in Chinese or English to get a sense of the style, then return to the original to feel its rhythm and diction.

Is this a complete poetry collection or a selection?

According to the Project Gutenberg record, this is an electronic text of Flores do Campo in Portuguese, a public-domain book. The information does not say whether it is a complete collection or a selection, so readers should rely on the contents of the actual electronic text and should not assume it contains all of the author's poems.

What kind of poet is João de Deus?

He was a nineteenth-century Portuguese poet known for short lyric poems in plain, highly musical language, often drawing on rural life and folk song. This collection reflects his attention to natural scenery and everyday feeling and is a good introductory text for understanding his poetic style.

What textual issues should I watch for when reading?

This is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg; it usually preserves the original language and older spelling conventions and may lack modern punctuation and notes. Do not treat old spellings as errors; use a Portuguese dictionary and poetry reference works to understand them, and cite the electronic source when quoting.

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About the author

João de Deus (João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos) Author · Portuguese · 1830–1896

João de Deus (full name João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos) was a Portuguese poet and educator, born in the Algarve in 1830 and died in Lisbon in 1896. He is known chiefly for his poetry, including the collections Ramo de Flores and Flores do Campo, whose subjects are drawn largely from nature and rural life; his verse is clear and musical in language and strongly lyrical in spirit. He also wrote the literacy primer Cartilha Maternal ou, Arte de Leitura, combining educational practice with literary skill and leaving a mark on elementary reading instruction in Portugal. He is regarded as one of the greatest Portuguese poets of his generation and is buried in the National Pantheon. Three of his works are held in this collection.