On
his death-bed he deplored the impending fate of his country, which he
alone could see. "I have loved my country. I have returned not only to die
on her bosom, but to die with her."
The Lusiad tells the story of the voyage of Vasco da Gama. The sailors of
Prince Henry of Portugal, commander of the Portuguese forces in Africa,
had passed Cape Nam and discovered the Cape of Storms, which the prince
renamed the Cape of Good Hope. His successor Emmanuel, determined to carry
out the work of his predecessor by sending out da Gama to undertake the
discovery of the southern passage to India. The Portuguese were generally
hostile to the undertaking, but da Gama, his brother, and his friend
Coello gathered a company, part of which consisted of malefactors whose
sentence of death was reversed on condition that they undertake the
voyage, and reached India.
The Lusiad is divided into ten cantos, containing one thousand one hundred
and two stanzas. Its metre is the heroic iambic, in rhymed octave stanzas.
The Lusiad is marred by its mythological allusions in imitation of Homer
and Virgil, but these are forgotten when the poet sings in impassioned
strains of his country's past glory.
The Lusiad is simple in style; its subject is prosaic; it is a constant
wonder that out of such unpromising materials Camoens could construct a
poem of such interest.
Pages:
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444