Release date is 2026-01-20

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"The Oxford book of Portuguese verse" by Aubrey F. G. Bell is a poetry anthology written in the early 20th century. It offers a wide survey of Portuguese poetry from its medieval Galician-Portuguese roots through Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, and modern currents, framed by a learned, scene‑setting introduction. Readers can expect a strong focus on the origins and evolution of Iberian lyric—especially the cantigas de amigo and related folk and courtly forms—alongside later classical and romantic strains.

The opening of the anthology presents a dedication and an expansive introduction that traces Portuguese verse from 12th‑century Galician‑Portuguese song (contrasting imported troubadour court lyric with indigenous parallel‑strophed forms), through the Marian Cantigas of Alfonso X, the roles of King Dinis, Gil Vicente, Sá de Miranda, and Camões, and onward into Baroque gongorism, Arcadian neoclassicism, Romanticism, and early modern trends. After this survey, the selections begin with medieval pieces—barcarolas, bailadas, pastorelas, alvoradas, and cantigas de amigo—often voiced by women yearning for absent lovers amid rivers, seas, boats, dawns, dances, and pilgrimages, all marked by refrains and patterned parallelism. This opening cluster concludes with Alfonso X’s Galician hymns to the Virgin, which blend praise with miracle narratives, providing a devotional counterpoint to the secular sea‑and‑love songs that precede them. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: London: Clarendon Press, 1925