João Dinis

Poet, full name João Cardoso Dinis Júnior. He worked as a typographer before becoming the owner of Tipografia Elzeviriana, in Porto. He was also an employee of the Real Companhia Vinícola do Norte. A discreet figure in Porto's literary circles during the last quarter of the 19th century, he initially showed more interest in the poetry of his contemporaries than in his own, collecting «all that the Portuguese muse [had produced] most enchanting in recent times» (according to J. Simões Dias, in the preface) in a broad «selection of songs and recitatives» by modern Portuguese (and some Brazilian) poets, which he titled Tesouro do Trovador (Porto, 1878). Only when he was over 40 did he publish his first and only book of verses. Eça de Queirós, who wrote the preface, then highlighted the «simple tastes» of his Muse, in opposition to the «new forms» («radiant with unheard-of novelty», he quoted) of the indiscreet and clumsy imitators of French Parnassianism. Nevertheless, although without sacrificing «soul and word» to «extreme refinement» or «extreme science of form», his poetry falls within the scope of Parnassianism, sometimes approaching the gentle, colloquial tone of João de Deus in intimate poems, and sometimes occasionally striking a dramatic chord in the recreation of popular scenes, much to the taste of the realistic poetry of the era (as in Guilherme de Azevedo and Junqueiro, for example).