José Ramón Yepes

José Ramón Yepes (Maracaibo, Venezuela; December 9, 1822 - ibid., September 1881) was a Venezuelan soldier, writer and politician who held important positions in Venezuelan politics..

As a sailor he held the positions of navy captain and rear admiral and worked as director of the navy in the Ministry of Defense and Navy during the government of President Juan Crisóstomo Falcón in 1874 and 1877. In his political role he held various public positions. as deputy and senator to the National Congress. As a writer he cultivated both poetry and narrative. He was known as & # 34; The Swan of the Lake & # 34; this name, and also used the pseudonym "Guairaratín". He fights against the dictatorship of General José Tadeo Monagas and then decides to go into exile. He belonged to the first Venezuelan romantic literary generation, of which he is considered one of its main exponents. He achieves literary fame thanks to his lyrical poems that place him among the greatest Venezuelan poets. His remains were located in 1949 and were transferred to the National Pantheon. The anecdote tells that his last years were spent in Maracaibo, when he drowned in the Coquivacoa, a Swan took flight from the waters, "It was his soul that flew in the form of a Swan towards the sky." Said one of his friends.

Some of his works were Death of a Girl (1846), Midnight (1848), Fogs (1852) or Iguaraya and Anaida (1874).