Adam Mickiewicz
Born in 1798 in Nowogródek in what is now Belarus, Adam Bernard Mickiewicz is regarded as Poland's national bard. Often compared to Goethe and Byron, he was a major figure in Poland's Romantic Movement. In 1824, he was banished as a political subversive to central Russia. Welcomed into the leading literary circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, he became a favorite there for his agreeable manners and extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation. In 1829, he left the Russian Empire for a life...See more
Born in 1798 in Nowogródek in what is now Belarus, Adam Bernard Mickiewicz is regarded as Poland's national bard. Often compared to Goethe and Byron, he was a major figure in Poland's Romantic Movement. In 1824, he was banished as a political subversive to central Russia. Welcomed into the leading literary circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, he became a favorite there for his agreeable manners and extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation. In 1829, he left the Russian Empire for a life of perpetual exile in Italy, France and Switzerland. For three years he lectured on Slavic literature at the Collčge de France in Paris. He died in Constantinople while helping to organize Polish and Jewish forces against Tsarism in the Crimean War of 1855. Among his great works besides Pan Tadeusz are his poetic drama Dziady ( Forefathers' Eve ), his historical narrative poems Gra yna and Konrad Wallenrod , and his sublime Crimean Sonnets . His body rests in the crypt of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland. See less
