RAMÓN DE CAMPOAMOR: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio (1817-1901) was a Spanish poet who gained popularity due to the development of positivism and traditionalism as models of the truly intellectual. He lived in a time where society was submerged in the failure of wars, and that was reflected in the literature of that time.

However, his poetic work was of the lowest literary quality that Spain had. It only served as a bridge through his poetry to connect readers with the experiences of the time. His work, for many scholars, was superficial and lacked elegance, originality and distinction.

Ramón de Campoamor. Source: uncredited, via Wikimedia Commons

Biography

Ramón de Campoamor was born in Navia, Spain, on September 24, 1817. It is known that he was the son of a landowner named Miguel Pérez Campoamor, while it was learned from his mother that he belonged to an upper-class family in the city of Asturias.

Childhood and years of studies

When Ramón was four years old his father passed away. The little one was left in the care of his mother, from whom he received his first training. At the age of ten he began his studies in the humanities and Latin. Years later he joined the Jesuit Order, but gave up shortly after.

At the age of eighteen, and still undecided, he went to study philosophy in Santiago de Compostela. Later he began to study mathematics and logic at the Santo Tomás Convent in Madrid.

Then he opted for a medical career, without bearing fruit. Some time later he decided on journalism and literature; much time was spent in libraries reading the great classics.

First steps in the literary world

Campoamor, after so much searching, finally defined his vocation: writing. During that time, the also Spanish writer and poet, José de Espronceda, extended his hand and sponsored some of his works. By the year 1837 Campoamor had published his first verses. He did work for the newspapers El Español and El Correo Nacional.

With only twenty years he published his first work, entitled A Generous Woman (1838). Then El Castillo de Santa María (1838), and later La Fineza del Querer (1840). From then on, her literary career began to boom, and criticism came as well.

Marriage and politics

Campoamor made a political life, he was a member of the Moderate party. This is how he was appointed governor of the province of Castellón, later he was sent to Alicante to assume his administration. It is in that city where he met who ended up being his wife: Guillermina.

The poet married Guillermina O'Gorman at the age of thirty. She came from a wealthy Irish family. The fortune of the young woman, according to those who knew him, gave the poet an air of bourgeoisie that changed his face. The couple had no children.

Years later, Campoamor was governor of Valencia between 1851 and 1854. In addition, he belonged to the Congress of Deputies, which made him participate consistently in public life. He was a defender of the monarchy, which resulted in a long discussion with the Spanish politician Juan Bautista Topete.

Death of the poet

Mausoleum of Ramón de Campoamor. Source: -Merce- from Madrid, Spain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ramón de Campoamor's life passed between poetry and politics. Despite the easy content of his rhymes, and the low intensity of his verses, he gained the appreciation of many in his country and throughout Latin America. He died in Madrid on February 11, 1901, at that time he was 83 years old.

Plays

Ramón de Campoamor's work was within the parameters of Realism, that is to say: he broke with the sentimentality and emotionalism typical of Romanticism. He was highly criticized because his philosophy was not on par with his poetry.

The above refers to the fact that his verses resorted much to the use of superficial and little refined words. In addition to that, he frequently used the repetition of phrases and words to be able to finish a verse. That was the subject of much criticism from colleagues of his time.

All these aspects made the nascent Modernism (1880-1920) as a literary current reject his work. At the same time, the group of writers who were in Spain during the war, known as the Generation of 98, pushed it aside for its old-fashioned and prosaic verse.

For better or for worse Campoamor carried out the development of his talent. He developed works within poetry, theater and philosophy, as well as other types of genres. Some of his most representative works are described below:

Pains

It is one of the author's poetic works. It contains several short poems, developed within philosophical and dramatic aspects. It is totally opposite to the romantic precepts. It approaches the principles of Positivism that holds scientific knowledge as genuine.

Most of the poems, being reflective, lack metaphors and symbols. Many are based on ideas that contain a certain amount of satire. With the characteristics of this work Campoamor moves away from the poets of his time. Here is a verse from Glories of Life:

“–No one in the world adores you like me!

Burn in turn the one who lied so well!

Oh! Who, such glory to possess, would say

What a smoke the glories of life are! ”.

Original Fables

This work enters the genre of poetry. In it Campoamor wrote a series of fables, which unfold within religious and philosophical themes. Like all his works, its content is separated from the ideals of beauty and feelings.

Fragment:

The Nightingale and the Mouse:

"A mouse cried without consolation, prisoner in a strong jail:

- Impossible is that luck

I could increase my grief!

And looking up at the sky

to accuse his pain, asked a nightingale

of a raptured hawk:

- Does your state troll me?

And he answered: -No, sir. "

Philosophy of Laws

It is one of the many philosophical works of the Spanish author. In it Campoamor developed themes related to religion, morals, politics, and philosophy itself. He made a comparison of the aspects that the society of his time lived through. The book is divided into seven parts.

It refers to the purpose that humanity has in its passage through the world. He argued that being happy and doing good to others is the goal. In general, the writer develops issues concerning the behavior of man and society from rationality.

Concerning religion, he wrote the following in chapter 1:

"Which religion is the best?" The existing one, even if it is false. When there is no religion, establish the Christian one… Instill in your believers the maxim that with nothing the future good is achieved as much as having the self-denial to provide our brothers with the present good ”.

Love or death

It is a work written in verses, but because of the form it can be represented in the theater. It's about love, marriage, revenge, and death. It is developed in scenes that describe the arrangement of space, time and place. It falls into the category of monologues.

Fragment:

“They will kill each other. Every man in love

He is a madman to tie, who is not tied.

And they will be when fighting without godparents, rather than gentlemen, murderers ”.

The Loves of the Moon

It is another of the short poems of the writer. He developed it in three songs. The first is composed of ten stanzas, which are related to love and disloyalty; in this case the monarchy of Portugal is the protagonist. The last two songs consist of eleven and six stanzas, respectively.

Canto Primero, stanza IX:

"It is, God lives, a terrible truth, (Terrible like all truths), than a sensitive heart

to flee from cold realities, making the impossible possible, led by the hands of fairies

you have to escape from the invisible

through the dark ajar doors! ”.

The above is a brief description of just some of the poet's works. Information about his works is scarce, there are hardly any reviews of his short poems. This may be related, perhaps, to the style of your verse.

Other works (theater and poetry)

However, some of the most prominent titles in his range of written works can be mentioned. Theater: A Generous Woman (1838), The Son of All (1841), The God Man (1871), The Savages (1875), After the Wedding (1876), Honor (1874), How Single Women Pray (1884).

In the case of poetry: Ternezas y Flores (1838), Ayes del Alma (1842), El Drama Universal (1853), Los Amores de una Santa (1886), Los Buenos y los Sabios (1881), Don Juan (1886)), Humoradas (1886-1888), Complete Fables (1941), Vanity of Beauty, Love and Glory.

Love and Glory:

"On sand and on wind

Heaven has founded everything!

The same the world of mud

than the world of feeling.

Of love and glory the foundation

only air and sand are.

Towers with which the illusion

world and hearts full;

you in the world are sand

and airs of the heart! ”.

Philosophical works

The most prominent titles of Campoamor's philosophical work were: Personalism, notes for a philosophy (1855), The Absolute (1865), The Ideism (1883). Other of his works were: The Manuscripts of my Father (1842), Polemic (1862), Cánovas (1884).

References

1. Ramón de Campoamor. (2018). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org
2. Ramón de Campoamor. (2018). Cuba: EcuRed, knowledge with everyone and for everyone. Recovered from: ecured.cu
3. Tamaro, E. (2018). Ramón de Campoamor. Spain: Biographies and Lives: The online biographical encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
4. Palenque, M. (2018). Ramón de Campoamor. Spain: Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com
5. Ramón de Campoamor. (2018). (N / a): Escritores.org. Recovered from: writers.org