Juliusz Słowacki

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Juliusz Słowacki.

Słowacki's family coat-of-arms (Leliwa).

Juliusz Słowacki (4 September 1809–3 April 1849) was one of the most famous Polish romantic poets.

He is considered as the greatest Polish poet, besides Adam Mickiewicz and Zygmunt Krasiński.

His early work was influenced by Byron and Shakespeare. His work focused on the Romanticism of Northern Europe with the classic tradition of the South. Following the failed November Insurrection 1830 - 1831, Słowacki emigrated as political refugee to France. By 1836 Słowacki embarked on a journey through Italy, Greece, Egypt and Palestine, which he described in Podróż do Ziemi Świętej z Neapolu. He was really a national prophet when he wrote a poem "The Slavic Pope" in 1848.

In 1844 Słowacki wrote Genezis z Ducha, an exposition of his philosophical ideas (called genesic idea) according to which the material world is an expression of the ever improving spirit capable of progression into ever-new forms. He gathered around himself a group of young exiles who shared his ideals, returning to Poznań, a part of Poland then under Prussian control. He took part in the Wielkopolska Uprising (1848) and on April 27 addressed the National Assembly as they faced military confrontation with the Prussian Army with the words "I tell you that the new age has dawned, the age of holy anarchy." The revolt was crushed.

He was a Romantic poet and playwright who came to be appreciated after his death for his skill with language and his lyric philosophical approach to reality.

Works

Dramas

• Maria Stuart
• Kordian (1834, performed 1899)
• Balladyna (1835, published 1839, performed 1862
• Horsztyński (1835, published 1866)
• Mazepa (1840, performed in Hungarian 1847, performed in Polish 1851)
• Lilla Weneda (1840, performed 1863)
• Fantazy (1841, published 1866, performed 1867)
• Sen srebny Salomei ("The Silver Dream of Salomea", 1844, performed 1900)
• Książę Niezłomny (1844, performed 1874)
• Samuel Zborowski (1845, published 1903, performed 1911)

poetry

• W Szwajcarii ("In Switzerland", 1839)
• Król-Duch ("The Spirit King", published partially in 1847 & in full in 1925)
• Podróz do ziemi świętej ("Voyage to the Holy Land", 1866)

See also

• Great Emigration

External links

• [Slowacki´s biography]

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