Ernesto Marecos

Poet, whose full name was Ernesto Frederico Pereira Marecos. Initially enrolling in the law program at the University of Coimbra, he ultimately abandoned his studies, going on to hold various civil service positions that required prolonged stays in Angola (as an officer in the Secretariat of the Government-General), Mozambique (as director of the Ibo Customs Office), and India. This experience may explain some of his fiction works based on African and Indian legends and tales. It was, however, as a poet that he distinguished himself. His first compositions were published in 1854 in the magazine Panorama, and the author soon scattered his verses across various newspapers, poems later collected in a volume. A poet of Romantic inclination, widely accepted by the public and well regarded in the cultural milieu of the time, he was responsible for introducing new talents emerging in the literary field in the «Folhetim» section of Comércio de Lisboa, which he wrote between 1864 and 1865, as was the case with Guilherme de Azevedo. Among his poetic works, Folhas sem Frutos stands out, gathering older compositions alongside some unpublished ones, its second part being filled with «Trechos de um poema de amor infeliz», likely written, according to biographers, in Goa between 1877 and 1878.