Afonso Africano (epic poem)
Afonso Africano is an epic poem by Portuguese poet Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo e Castelo Branco. It was first published in 1611.[1] It is composed of twelve cantos.[2] It is written in ottava rima[3] which in Portugal is known as oitava rima. This stanza is made up of eight lines and rhymes abababcc. The same was earlier used by Luís de Camões in his Lusiads. Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo's poem narrates about Portuguese king Afonso who was called The African. In the poem his expedition to Morocco, the war and the sieges of Arzilla and Tanger are described.[4] The first stanza is typical for Renaissance epic poems.
- As armas e o varão ilustre canto
- que de Africano tem insígnia e nome,
- cuja alta fama será viva, enquanto
- no dourado horizonte o Sol assome.
- Donde começarei? Que o grande espanto
- me tem suspenso, que princípio tome,
- que tantas obras quantas me apresenta
- vivo calor que mais e mais se aumenta.[5]
References
- ↑ Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo e Castelo Branco at Projecto Vercial.
- ↑ Oliveira, Francisco de; Teixeira, Claudia; Dias, Paula Barata (2012). Espacos e paisagens: Antiguidade Classica e herancas contemporaneas: vol. II: linguas e literaturas: Idade Media: Renascimento: recepcao (2.a edicao. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra / Coimbra University Press. p. 337. ISBN 978-989-26-0283-7.
- ↑ Ottava rima in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- ↑ Łukaszyk, Ewa (2007). Archipelagi wyobrazni: z dziejow toposu wyspy w kregu literatur romanskich. Wydawnictwo UJ. p. 60. ISBN 978-83-233-2299-3.
- ↑ [The stanza was taken from Projecto Vercial.]