ROMANTICISM

Adam Mickiewicz

Sándor Petőfi

Adam Mickiewicz, in full Adam Bernard Mickiewicz, was born on December 24, 1798, in Nowogrodek (now Navahrudak) (Belarus) and died on November 26, 1855 in Istanbul (Turkey). Back then, the area was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by the Russian Empire.

Adam Mickiewicz was one of the greatest poets of Poland and a lifelong apostle of Polish national freedom. In his early life, he studied at the University of Wilno (now Vilnius) in Lithuania, between 1815 and 1819. In 1817 he initiated himself into political life by joining a secret patriotic student society called ‘Philomats’ Society, which was later incorporated into a larger clandestine student organization.

Mickiewicz is regarded as the main representative of Polish Romantic poetry. His writings are charged with passion and emotion and evoke figures present in both Polish and Lithuanian culture. His masterpiece, Pan Tadeusz, published in 1834, described the vanished Lithuanian society that was central to the poet’s youth.

Sándor Petőfi, born in Kiskőrös (Hungary) on January 1, 1823, was one of the greatest Hungarian poets. He was also a revolutionary who embodied the Hungarian desire for freedom. During his adolescence, Petőfi started to display a deep interest in literature, which led to the publication of his first poem in 1842.

In 1844, he became assistant editor of Pesti Divatlap, a Hungarian literary periodical. In the same year, Versek’s first volume of poems appeared and Petőfi started to attract a discrete success. Sándor Petőfi was very active politically, as shown by the passion put in his poems. Through his poetry, he attacked the social conditions of his country and the privileges that monarchy and nobles had. One of his poems, the so-called “Talpra Magyar” (“Rise, Hungarian”) became the anthem of the revolution. Petőfi is supposed to have died in 1849, even if his body was never found.