biography
| name: |
Mélendez Valdés, Juan
|
pronunciation:
[melendes valdes]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1754–1817)
|
| biography:
| Poet and politician, born in Ribera de Fresno, Spain. He studied law and classics at Salamanca University and was appointed a professor there in 1778. After France invaded Spain (1808), he became director of public instruction, but was forced into exile in France after Napoleon's defeat. His graceful poetry used Neoclassical conventions, and he is regarded as a precursor of Romanticism because of his empathy with nature. In his later years he wrote philosophical odes that reflected the sentiments of the Enlightenment. |
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