early life and career alexandre o'neill was a portuguese poet and writer, born on december 19, 1924, in lisbon, portugal. he was a self-taught person who worked as a publicity professional. o'neill was a surrealist and concretist poet and writer, and a publicist, who collaborated in many periodicals. artistic style and influences o'neill's writings diverged from surrealist to form an original style whose poetry reflects a love/hate relationship with his country. his salient characteristics include a disrespect of conventions, both social and literary, an attitude of permanent revolt, playfuln…