José Jacinto Severino

Military man, autodidact and poet. The son of poor peasants living in the Alentejo interior, he could not attend school, eventually learning the basics of reading and writing through intuition and some help from his father. He soon became an autodidact, reading everything that came into his hands, until in 1954 he entered military service, taking the opportunity to apply, in December of the following year, for the exam of the former Regimental Schools Course (equivalent to the current Preparatory Cycle). Two years later he passed the entrance exams for permanent cadre sergeants, in which he remained until his retirement in 1980 for health reasons. He undertook five service commissions in the former colonies, passing through Africa and Asia, imitating the journey of his two poetic idols, Camões and Bocage. When he began writing verse, he followed the footsteps of popular poets, making quatrains without concerns for metrical rigor. He later evolved to the sonnet, but quickly realized that he lacked knowledge of style and poetic forms. He then dedicated himself to the thorough study of the art of poetry, with the objective not only of improving the quality and rigor of his poetic productions but, most importantly, of helping less educated poets. In this context, he wrote the work Em Defesa da Poesia, 1994, whose 3rd edition was published in 1998.