RAFAEL POMBO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Rafael Pombo (1833-1912) was a Colombian writer, poet, short story writer, fabulist, translator, and diplomat. He is considered one of the most outstanding poets of the 19th century in his country. However, as time passed, his children's stories overshadowed his lyrical quality and that led to him being known more for his narrative production.

The literary work of José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo was characterized by the predominance of a cultured, precise and expressive language. His poetry entered the romanticism movement and stood out for its reflective, subjective, emotional and sometimes philosophical content. The author wrote about God, woman, nature and love.

Rafael pigeon. Source: http://www.lablaa.org/, via Wikimedia Commons

Regarding his work aimed at children, this intellectual developed stories with educational content and full of values. All loaded with imagination, grace and creativity. Some of the best known titles were: The poor old woman, Simón the bobito, The bandit cat and The walking tadpole.

Biography

Birth and family

José Rafael Pombo was born on November 7, 1833 in Bogotá, old New Granada. The writer came from a cultured and wealthy family. His parents were the politician, diplomat and journalist Lino de Pombo O'Donell (signatory of the historic Pombo-Michelena treaty on the limits with Venezuela) and Ana María Rebolledo.

Studies

The first years of Rafael Pombo's educational training were in charge of his mother Ana María Rebolledo. In his childhood was when his taste for reading and poetry was born, and at the age of ten he began to write his first verses.

After the training he received from his mother, Pombo continued his learning process at the seminary in his hometown. There he obtained knowledge in Latin, which allowed him to translate the great classics of literature during his professional life.

After that, the writer studied humanities at the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora del Rosario and graduated as an engineer from the Colegio Militar in 1848.

First tasks

Although Pombo did not dedicate himself fully to practicing engineering, as a recent graduate he participated in several projects for the beautification of Bogotá. At that stage he joined the Philotemic Society.

Also at that time the writer also collaborated in the newspapers El Día, El Heraldo, La América, La Nueva Era and El Filotémico. In the last printed medium he published his first poems signed with the pseudonym "Firatelio".

Popayán weather

Pombo went to Popayán to spend some time at one of the family's properties. There he invested time in reading and writing. That was the period in which he developed two of his most famous poems: My love and The glass of wine, both written under the pseudonym "Edda".

The writer created the publication La Siesta in 1852 in the company of his intellectual friends José María Vergara y Vergara and José Eusebio Caro. The newspaper had literary content and the romanticist current prevailed.

Diplomatic career

Rafael Pombo began his diplomatic career in 1855, the year he was appointed secretary of the Colombian Foreign Ministry in New York. Along with his political work, the writer developed his literary work. He spent stints in Philadelphia and Washington as consul.

At that time, Pombo was hired by a company to translate children's songs from English into Spanish. The final product was the works Painted Tales for Children and Moral Tales for Formal Children between 1867 and 1869. The intellectual lived seventeen years in the United States and it was his most productive stage.

Return to Bogotá

The Colombian writer returned to his country in 1872 and quickly joined the literary and journalistic events of the time. He worked as a translator, worked and founded several newspapers. Pombo's print media that stood out the most were El Centro and El Cartucho.

A year after settling in Bogotá, the intellectual proposed and succeeded in getting the establishment of the General Institute of Fine Arts approved. At the same time he began to work in the newspaper La Escuela Normal, which was dependent on the Public Instruction body.

Publication of religious poetry

Pombo's talent for poetry encompassed the religious theme. So in 1877, the publication El 8 de Diciembre, a pamphlet with religious verses that was previously approved by the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Bogotá, came to light. In this work he ratified his linguistic quality and his expressive force.

Hard times

Rafael Pombo was seriously affected by an ulcer in 1879, for this reason he remained in bed for a long time. However, the writer tried hard enough to carry out the translation of The Odes of Horace.

The state of health in which he was immersed made him look for solutions in homeopathic medicine. After several years in bed, in 1883 the doctor Gabriel Ujueta managed to heal him and that motivated him to join the Homeopathic Society of Colombia. Around that time he dedicated himself to writing about homeopathy and suffered the loss of his mother.

Recognitions for his literary work

Rafael Pombo's literary work was one of the most outstanding in his country and that earned him recognition from academia, critics and the public. This is how he was appointed a member of the Academy of History in 1902.

Later he was recognized with the National Poet Award after a tribute that was paid to him on August 20, 1905 at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá.

Last years and death

Pombo's life was dedicated to literary and journalistic work. Although he was one of the most notable poets in Colombia, his best-known work was that of children's content. His last years were dedicated to writing stories and fables.

Tomb of Rafael Pombo. Source: Baiji, via Wikimedia Commons

On February 6, 1912, the writer entered the Colombian Academy of the Language. At that time, the intellectual's health began to decline. Rafael Pombo died on May 5, 1912 in the city where he was born, he was seventy-eight years old. His body was buried in the Central Cemetery of the Colombian capital.

Style

Rafael Pombo's literary style was framed within romanticism. The writer used a cultured, clear, precise and expressive language in his poems and stories. In his works there was presence of a strong load of subjectivity, reflection and sentimentality.

The main influences of this Colombian writer were Víctor Hugo, José Zorrilla, Byron and the Latin classics.

Poetry

Pombo's poetic work was characterized by the use of a clear and expressive language, developed within the ranks of the romantic current. In his lyrics the extensive knowledge he had of language and its forms was evidenced.

Pombo's deep management of linguistic resources allowed him to write sonnets, odes, songs, hymns and epigrams.

The poet had the ability to handle and apply all types of metrics that were used in the nineteenth century, that put a stamp of creativity and dynamism on his work. The most common themes in Rafael Pombo's verses were: love, women, God, nature, mysticism and loneliness.

Children's Stories

Pombo's children's stories stood out and continue to be valid for their fantastic, surprising and original content. The writer used a cultured, clear and entertaining language to attract children to reading. In his narrations, he reflected his thought of awakening the child's curiosity through imagination.

The content of Rafael Pombo's stories was focused on teaching infants about aspects of life from the educational, recreational and dynamic aspects. Grace, creativity and imagination were predominant features in the narrative work of this distinguished Colombian writer.

Plays

Rafael Pombo's work was developed in three stages related to circumstances of his life. The first corresponded to his first years of youth in the city of Bogotá, a time in which he published several loose poems in some printed media and his well-known The Hours of Darkness in 1855.

The second stage of Pombo's literary life occurred in the United States during his diplomatic missions between 1855 and 1872.

Headquarters of the Rafael Pombo Foundation, the writer's birthplace. Source: Baiji, via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, the third was held again in the city where he was born, it was from 1872 until the end of his life. Here are some of the books published by the writer and a list of his most popular stories.

The following stories also stand out

Lino de Pombo, father of the writer. Source: Culture Bank of the Republic, via Wikimedia Commons

Poems

Brief description of some of his works

The hour of darkness

It was one of Rafael Pombo's best-known poems, and he developed it when he was twenty-two years old. This work consisted of sixty-one tenths in which he reflected feelings of hopelessness and anguish due to a health condition that he suffered for a long time.

The poem was produced within the lines of romanticism and used a cultured and expressive language, typical of his literary style.

Fragment

"Oh what a frightening mystery

is this of existence!

Reveal some conscience to me!

Speak to me, mighty God!

There is I don't know how scary

in the being of our being.

Why did I come to be born?

Who forces me to suffer?

Who gave that enemy law

to be to suffer?

If I was in nothing, Why did i come out of nowhere

to execrate the reduced hour

where did my life begin?

And once it was fulfilled

it is a fatal wonder, Why the same one who has imposed it

does he not come to free me from him?

What about having to load

a good against which I protest?

… Why am I where I am

with this life that I have

without knowing where I come from

without knowing where I'm going…?… ”.

To Niagara

This poem was produced by the Colombian writer during the period he lived in the United States. Pombo, in addition to exalting the natural landscape of Niagara, made comparisons in relation to aspects of life.

In this work the writer spoke of the essence of nature itself with the artificial and superficial. That gave him a content of philosophical reflection.

Fragment

"There you are again… The same spell

that years ago I knew, monster of grace, white, fascinating, huge, augustus, sultan of torrents.

Spring and serene in your unparalleled strength.

There you are always the Niagara! Perennial

in your static trance, in that vertigo

of tremendous will, without getting tired

never from you, nor the man to admire you.

… Could God fatigue? Ah! as far as

there is lethal charm, sad beginning

Of inertia, hostile to God, germ of death, gangrene of kidnapped souls

of its vivifying stream…

In you it seems that the world begins

letting go of the Eternal's hands

to undertake its everlasting course

through the deep ether.

You are the sky that will cover the earth

you descend, and veiled in white clouds

the majesty of God comes down with you… ”.

Elvira tracy

This poetic work by Pombo was about love and eternalized innocence. The writer with a language full of emotions expressed his feelings towards the young woman who gave the poem its title and whose life was extinguished when she was barely fifteen years old.

It was an elegy for love, for women, but above all for a feeling that left without being fully consummated. Rafael Pombo placed the woman in a high, almost divine place. To her it was the totality of creation and an irrepressible attractive force.

Fragment

"Here is the most beautiful year

day, worthy of paradise! It's the early

greeting that autumn sends us;

are the goodbyes that summer gives us!

Waves of pure light shine

the white bedroom of sweet Elvira;

the loving birds sing, the perfumed zephyr sighs.

Here is her dressing table: I still

shudders

which of its virgin shape to the touch

soft.

Here is the mother of Jesus: it seems

be listening to your prayers.

A coffin in the center, a cloth, a Christ!

A corpse! Great God!… Elvira!…

It's her!

I have seen her happily beautiful yesterday.

And today?… hela there… only

beautiful!…".

The poor old lady

It was one of the best known works by Rafael Pombo, it was aimed at children and is currently very valid. It was a narrative in verses about the life of an old woman, who although she had only a few years of life left, she had plenty of food.

The text was written in simple and easily understood language. It was loaded with humor and irony, because the content contradicted the title given by the author.

Fragment

"Once upon a little old woman

with nothing to eat

but meats, fruits, sweets, cakes, eggs, bread and fish.

He drank broth, chocolate, milk, wine, tea and coffee, and the poor thing could not find

what to eat or what to drink.

… appetite never had

finishing eating,

nor did he enjoy full health

when he was not well.

He died of wrinkles, already hunched like a three, and never complained again

neither from hunger nor thirst.

And this poor old lady

when he died he left no more

what ounces, jewels, lands, houses, eight cats and a turpial.

Sleep in peace, and God permit

that we can enjoy

the poverties of this poor

and die of the same evil ”.

Fragment of

“Simón the bobito called the pastry chef:

Let's see the cakes, I want to try them!

-Yes, said the other, but first I want to

see that pint with which you have to pay.

He looked in his pockets for good Simoncito

and said: you will see! I don't have a single unit.

Simón the bobito likes fish

and he also wants to become a fisherman, and spend hours sitting

fishing in Mama Leonor's bucket.

Simoncito made a snow cake

already roasting on the coals hungry

threw out,

but the cupcake fell apart shortly, and put out the embers and ate nothing… ".

Fragment of

"Mirringa mirronga, the cat candonga

is going to give a treat playing hide and seek, and wants all the cats and cats

do not eat mice or dine with

rats

'To see my glasses, and pen and inkwell, and we are putting the cards first.

Let the Fuñas and the

Fanfare, and Ñoño and Marroño and Tompo and their

girls.

Now let's see how the cupboard is.

There is chicken and fish, the thing is

good! '

… The flowers, the table, the soup!… Tilín!

People are coming. Jesus, what a bustle!

They arrived by car late at night

lords and ladies, with many zalemas, in large uniform, tail and glove, with very stiff collars and elegant tailcoats… ”.

Phrases

- “It is the traveling old age of the night; and as the earth is hidden from you, open, my friend, the sky to your gaze ”.

- “And from the rumor of other people's joys only melancholic echoes reach me”.

- “God made it that way. The complaints, the reproach are blindness. Happy is he who consults oracles higher than his mourning! ”.

- "Mother… I'm going to follow you… you see ahead that, giving me the example, I will do it instantly.

- “It was a lake like those made by clouds, with its silver edges, with its cherubs, with its swaying; deep white midnight lake; as between heaven and earth, as in the world, and outside of it… ”.

- “The child is an aspirational bomb, not of reasoning that tires him, but of images; it is essentially curious, practical and material; he wants to be taught objectively. "

- "I, for today free and vacant, give the vote to a brunette, slim but full, with a correct and spicy face."

- “I loved you as great nature loves the morning embrace of the sun; As the orphan the name of her father, as the virtue the blessing of God.

- “You were everything to me, heaven, the world, dreams, beliefs, home. Missing you, living was impossible; with you, beloved, evil is inconceivable ”.

- “If this is love, oh young man! I love you, and if this is gratitude, I bless you; I my adored one, my lord I call you, that others give you the title of friend ”.

References

1. Tamaro, E. (2019). Rafael pigeon. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
2. Rafael pigeon. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
3. Rafael pigeon. (2017). Colombia: Banrepcultural. Recovered from: encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org.
4. Rafael pigeon. (S. f.). Cuba: EcuRed. Recovered from: ecured.cu.
5. Sánchez, Á. (2018). Who was Rafael Pombo? (N / a): Educapeques. Recovered from: educapeques.com.