commentator Ramalho Ortigão. In his satirical magazine As Farpas: Ortigão remarked that the young poet should show himself "more Cesário, less Verde" ("verde" in Portuguese meaning "unripe", i.e. inexperienced, and the mention of “Cesário” being a play on Verde's name descending from the Roman Caesar.) This deeply hurt Verde, who in fact during his lifetime would frequently complain about the indifference which greeted his work – though he and Ortigão would later become friends. In 1877, Verde for the first time showed symptoms associated with tuberculosis, the same illness that killed his sister and that, in 1882, also sent his brother, Joaquim Tomás, to the grave. During these latter years, his interest in writing also diminished. His health deteriorated steadily. He died on July 19, 1886 in Lisbon. Poetic profile Cesário Verde is frequently hailed as both one of Portugal's finest urban poets and one of the country's greatest describers of the countryside. Thus, Verde's poems (always written in the alexandrine structure) are mostly split into “city poems” and “countryside poems” (the few that escape these two categories dealing with love, often scorned.) Cesário Verde's city poems are often described as bohemian, decadent and socially aware. He is hailed as Portugal's first great realist poet, frequently dealing with scenes of poverty, disease and moral decay. His poems also frequently deal with spleen and ennui. In "O Sentimento dum Ocidental" ("The Feeling of a Westerner"), Verde captures the atmosphere of decadence then growing in Portuguese society, comparing the past discoveries and expeditions of Portugueses sailors, as well as the works of national poet Luís de Camões, to the present. He also expresses a longing to experience a larger world beyond the city, pining for “Madrid, Paris, Berlim, S. Petersburgo, o mundo!” (“Madrid, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, the world!”) While the city is corrupt and decaying, the countryside in Verde's poetry is described as lively, fertile and full of beauty. Even the growing industrialization of agriculture isn't seen as a worrying factor, as this passage from “De Verão” (“In The Summer”) shows: “E perguntavas sobre os últimos inventos Agrícolas. Que aldeias tão lavadas! Bons ares! Boa luz! Bons alimentos! Olha: os saloios vivos, corpulentos Como nos fazem grandes barretadas” (“And you asked about the latest inventions In agriculture. What well-washed villages! Good airs! Good light! Good food! Look: the countrymen alive, corpulent What great hat-drops they give us!”) The autobiographical poem “Nós”