European Elegies/Biographical Notes
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
01.
Gaius Valerius Catullus, born at Verona, B.C. 84. Spent the brief years of his manhood in Rome, where he underwent an intense love affair with the dangerous noblewoman, Clodia. Died young, like Keats and Shelley, about 54 B.C. Unequalled among Roman poets for his tenderness and passion.
02.
Francisco Villaespesa, born at Almeria, in the south of Spain, in 1877. Most distinguished of living Andalusian poets.
03.
Wladyslaw Nawrocki, publisher and poet, of Warsaw, Poland. Born 1872. Has translated freely from English verse.
04.
João Xavier de Mattos, an obscure Portuguese poet, remembered chiefly for the melancholy charm of his sonnets. He died in 1789.
05.
Lambros Porphyras, pen-name for Demetrios Sypsomos, born 1879, and now resident in Piræus, Greece.
06.
Miltiades Malacassis, born 1870, assistant librarian of the House of Representatives, Athens, Greece.
07.
Simon Jenko, Slovene patriot and poet, born October 27, 1835, at Podrečem-pri-Mavčičah. Educated at Kranj and Laibach. Died October 18, 1869.
08.
Modern scholarship has not yet succeeded in identifying the author of the famous 101-stanza poem from which this extract is taken.
09.
Theodor Storm, born 1817, at Husum, Schleswig. Educated Kiel and Berlin. Famous as novelist (Immensee, 1852, and Schimmelreiter, 1888) and as poet. Died 1888.
10.
Francesco Petrarca, born at Arezzo, Italy, 1304. The greatest European scholar of his time and the first true reviver of learning in medieval Europe. Crowned as laureate, Rome, 1341. Wrote much consummate Latin verse but is best remembered for his Italian love poetry. Died 1374.
11.
Alun, pen-name of John Blackwell, born 1797 at Pontarwyl-on-the-Wyddgrug, Wales. Graduated 1828 at Jesus College, Oxford. Curate at Holywell; later held the living of Manordeifi in Pembrokeshire. Died 1840.
12.
See No. 9, above.
13.
Hviezdoslav, pen-name of Pavol Orszagh (born 1849), Slovak poet and patriot. From his little mountain-village of Nameštov, he sought by his writings to free his fellow-Slovaks from the Magyar yoke. Produced a prodigious amount of verse, original and translated. Died 1921, with his life-work successful.
14.
Paul Verlaine, born at Metz, 1844. Educated at Paris. A dissolute pagan in youth, a Catholic in later life. One of the greatest lyric poets of France. Lectured at London and Oxford. Died at Paris 1896.
15.
Sirak Skitnik, pen-name of Panaiot Todorov, a Bulgarian minor poet, born 1883. Studied painting in Russia, and is a worker of the more modern school.
16.
Fritz Husmann, Plattdeutsch poet. Born 1877 in Siedenburg, Hanover, Germany. Headmaster of school at Wesermünde-Speckenbüttel, Province of Hanover. Military service in the Balkans. His Plattdeutsch poems are at their best in depicting the simple charm of peasant and child life.
17.
Tene, pen-name of a gifted Basque poetess, Señorita Robustiana Mujika, of Deba, province of Guipuzcoa, Spain.
18.
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, born 1804, at Boulogne-sur-Mer. A poet in youth, he ultimately became the greatest of all French literary critics. Died at Paris, 1869.
19.
Aaro Hellaakoski, one of the younger generation of Finnish poets. Born 1893. Resides in Helsingfors.
20.
The great bulk of Breton poetry consists of folk-songs.
21.
See No. 7, above.
22.
Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest of Polish poets. Born near Nowogrodek, 1798. Educated at the University of Vilna. Visited the Crimea, 1825, when this sonnet was written, as well as No. 74. Settled in Rome; later in Paris where he became Professor of Slavonic Literature, 1841. Died in Constantinople, 1855.
23.
Karl Jonas Love Almqvist, born Stockholm, 1793, son of a professor of theology. One of the greatest of Swedish prose writers. Supreme in the field of romance. In 1851, fled to America under the cloud of a murder-charge. Died at Bremen, 1866.
24.
An anonymous poem, from the 9th century, A.D.
25.
Steingrímur Thorsteinsson (1831–1913), a scholarly poet and skilful translator. His son, Axel Thorsteinsson is to-day a publisher in Reyjavik, Iceland.
26.
Dimitrie Petrino, a wild young Rumanian poet, born 1846. After dissipating his patrimony, he became a professor in the University of Jassy; but as a consequence of his prodigal life, died in a Bucharest hospital in 1879. Published two volumes of poetry, "Flowers of the grave" (1869), and "Lights and shadows" (1870).
27.
Giovanni della Casa, born at Florence in 1503. Studied at Bologna. Lived at Rome and Florence. Archbishop of Benivento, and Papal Nuncio to Venice. Died in 1556 at Rome.
28.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, born at Moscow in 1799. Visited the Caucasus, 1822. Strongly influenced by Byron and Shakespeare. Killed in a duel, 1837. Easily the greatest of all Slavic poets.
29.
Publius Papinius Statius, born at Naples, A.D. 45, of good family, and was trained as a poet. Perhaps the most poetic of the post-Augustans. An epic “Thebais” was his chief work. Died at Naples, A.D. 96.
30.
See No. 27, above.
31.
Juan Ramón Jiménez, born 1881 at Moguer, Huelva province, Spain. A permanent invalid whose verse is filled with poignant melancholy. Now resident in Madrid.
32.
Eino Leino, pen-name of Eino Lönnbohm, born 1878 at Paltamossa, Finland. In addition to much original poetry, he translated Racine, Schiller, Goethe, and Dante into Finnish verse. He died in 1925.
33.
Mileta Jaškič, Serbian poet, born 1869. Professor in the Academy of Science, University of Belgrade.
34.
Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet and soldier, born 1440 at Paredes de Nava. Killed in action 1478. His fame rests on the single poem from which these stanzas are taken, an elegy on the death of his father.
35.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman philosopher, tragedian, and poet. Born 3 B.C., son of an equestrian rhetorician of Corduba. Tutor of the emperor Nero, and by him forced to commit suicide, A.D. 65. The most eminent Latin writer of the Silver Age.
36.
Karel Lodewyk Ledeganck, Flemish poet, born at Ecloo in 1805. Justice of the peace at Zomergem and (after 1842) inspector of elementary education in East Flanders. Died at Ghent in 1847.
37.
Heinrich von Melk, a lay brother in the Austrian monastery of Melk. Wrote about 1160, in the gloomy style which was then the ecclesiastical fashion.
38.
From a Strassburg manuscript of the eleventh century. The author is uncertain.
39.
Jaroslav Vrchlický (1853–1912) Czech poet and translator. Professor of modern literatures in the University of Prague. Published over two hundred and fifty volumes of original and translated work.
40.
Robert Lev Novak, Czech poet, born at Prague 1894. Studied philosophy. Died at Davos, 1916.
41.
Conde do Casal Ribeiro, a Portuguese minor poet. Born 1825, died 1888.
42.
Charles Baudelaire, born in Paris, 1821. Educated Lyons and Paris. Visited India 1841. A poet of dissolute life but consummate artistry. Died in a Paris hospital in 1867.
43.
Emili Guanyavents, Catalan poet, born at Barcelona in 1860. A man of deep humanity and fine poetic feeling.
44.
João de Deus Ramos, born at Messines, in the south of Portugal, 1830. The most spontaneous and natural Portuguese poet of the nineteenth century. A journalist and educational reformer. Died in 1896.
45.
Preserved in the Exeter Manuscript. The author is unknown.
46.
Olavo Bilac (1865–1918), a gifted Portuguese poet of Brazil.
47.
Euripides (480–406 B.C.), the youngest of the three great tragic poets of Athens, and in spirit the most modern. Wrote some seventy-five poetic dramas, of which nineteen are extant.
48.
There is no Lappish poetry apart from folk-songs.
49.
Josef Kálal, a Czech poet, born at Pisk, 1879. At present, a magistrate in Prague.
50.
Gustaf Fröding (1860–1911), Sweden’s greatest lyric poet during the period of his own life-time.
51.
Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet, born in 1856 in the village of Naguievich. Strong worker for Ukrainian freedom. Lived at Lemberg and elsewhere. Died 1916.
52.
These nomad peoples are of Hindu origin. They have an abundance of folk-poetry but scarcely any literature.
53.
Pieter Jelles Troelstra, a Frisian lyric poet, born 1860. Lawyer at Leeuwarden, later at Haarlem.
54.
Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet, born at Recanati in 1798. A consummate Greek scholar. Perhaps the greatest of modern European lyric poets. Profoundly pessimistic. Died at Naples, 1837.
55.
Naim Be Frasheri, the most prolific of Albanian writers. His books include poetry, history, agriculture, and science. Died 1903.
56.
From an authorless Old Norse poem.
57.
See No. 28, above.
58.
Alexandru Sihleanu (1834–1857), a brilliant young Romantic poet of Rumania, who died at the age of twenty-three with his work scarcely begun.
59.
Cino da Pistoia, Italian poet and intimate friend of Dante, born at Pistoia in 1270. Laureate of the University of Bologna, 1314. Professor of Law; and wrote many legal works. Died 1336.
60.
Heinrich Heine, German lyric poet, born at Düsseldorf, in 1797. Educated at Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin. Settled finally in Paris, where he died in 1856.
61.
Miquel dels Sants Oliver, Catalan poet, born 1865 at Palma, Island of Majorca. A scholarly critic, historian novelist, and poet. Died at Barcelona in 1920.
62.
From the Red Book of Hergest, a 14th century MS. preserved in the library of Jesus College, Oxford.
63.
Vilhelm Krag, a Norwegian novelist (born 1868), who has also written some songs.
64.
Afanasi Fet (or Shenshin), born 1820 in the province of Orel, Russia, son of a country gentleman. Studied at the University of Moscow and served in the cavalry. His best lyrics were written in early youth. Died 1892.
65.
Josip Stritar, Slovene poet, born at Laschitz, 1837. Studied classical philology at the University of Vienna. His “Viennese Sonnets” and “Viennese Elegies” are perhaps his finest work. Died in 1906.
66.
Ioannis N. Gryparis, Greek poet, born 1872. Chief of the section of Fine Arts, Department of Education, Athens. Has translated Aeschylus and Plato into modern Greek.
67.
Dr. Douglas Hyde very graciously looked up this poem for me in the original manuscript in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. It is attributed to an O’Carroll but there is nothing to indicate further the identity of the poet.
68.
Hallgrîmur Pétursson (1614–1674), an Icelandic priest and poet. The greatest hymn-writer of Iceland. Afflicted with leprosy in later life.
69.
Gian Fadri Caderas, Rhaetoromanic poet, born 1830 at Modena, Italy. After 1856 lived wholly in the Engadine, where he was banker, editor, and poet. Died 1891.
70.
Lauri Pohjanpää, one of the younger Finnish poets (born 1889). Lives in Helsingfors.
71.
Auguste Angellier (1848–1911), French scholar and poet. A professor of English literature, and the chief authority on the life and works of Robert Burns.
72.
Didericus Dorbeck, born Schager, Holland, in 1815. A physician, who wrote a number of fugitive poems and stories. Died at Alkmaar, 1888.
73.
Théodore de Banville, born at Moulins, France, 1823. A great stylist and master of metre, though lacking in intellectual power. Died in Paris, 1891.
74.
See No. 22, above.
75.
Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585), the chief Renaissance poet of France. Intimately associated with the French court. Displayed magnificence of language and a virtuoso’s skill in metre.
76.
Anthero de Quental, Portuguese poet, born 1842 in the Azores. Studied at the University of Coimbra. A political agitator. One of the world’s greatest sonnet-writers. Spinal disease finally drove him to suicide in 1891.
77.
Duncan MacIntyre, Gaelic poet, born 1724 at Druimliaghart, Argyllshire. Fought at Falkirk, 1745. Forester to the Earl of Breadalbane, later to the Duke of Argyll. Natural poet, rather than a cultivated one. Died at Edinburgh in 1812.
78.
Theodor Kjerulf, Norwegian geologist and poet, born at Christiania in 1825. Professor of Geology in the University of Christiania, and founder of the national geological survey. Died 1888.
79.
Mihaly (Michael) Szabolcska, Hungarian poet, clergyman of the Reformed Church at Temesvar, Rumania (a famous Hungarian city, placed under Rumanian tyranny by the Treaty of Trianon, 1920).
80.
Johannes Joergensen, Danish poet, born 1866. Now resident at Assisi, Italy.
81.
A lyric interlude in the charming medieval romance, “Aucassin and Nicolette.” It was written in the dialect of Picardy by an unknown author in the 12th century.
82.
Rútû Lapelei, an obscure minor poet of Lithuania.
83.
The Estonians have a more copious folk-poetry than any other European people. One diligent researcher, Jakob Hurt (1839–1906), succeeded in unearthing nearly 160,000 individual items of folk composition.
84.
Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (born 1885), the most distinguished living poet of Finland. Rector of the University of Abo (Turku).
85.
Bernart de Ventadorn, famous Provençal troubadour, flourished during the twelfth century. Became in 1152 court poet of Henry II of England. Withdrew in old age (1194) to a monastery in Poitou.
86.
Jovan Gričić-Milenko, Serb-Croat poet, born 1846 at Čerevick, Syrmia. Studied medicine at Vienna. Died young in 1875 in a Viennese monastery.
87.
See No. 28, above.
88.
Janis Rainis, Latvia’s greatest poet, and dramatist, born 1865 and now resident in Riga. Ten volumes of poems and four of translations from world literature.
89.
Mikhail Yur’evich Lermontov, born in Moscow, of Scottish descent, in 1814. Studied at Moscow University. Military service in the Caucasus. Killed in a duel, 1841.
90.
See No. 42, above.
91.
See No. 43, above.
92.
See No. 84, above.
93.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, greatest German poet, born at Frankfort-on-Main in 1749. Studied at the Universities of Leipzig and Strassburg. Eminent in fiction, drama, poetry, philosophy, and science. Died at Weimar, 1832.
94.
Alcman, a Spartan poet of the seventh century B.C. Little is known of his life.
95.
Jaroslav Havliček (born 1881), Czech poet, editor at Taboře.
96.
Yrjö Weijola (born 1875). Finnish lyric poet. Graduate in philosophy of Helsingfors University.
97.
Sigbjörn Obstfelder (1866–1900). Norwegian minor poet, eccentric but talented.
98.
L. C. Nielsen (born 1871), Danish poet and critic. Lives in Copenhagen.
99.
Jeppe Aakjær (born 1866), a Danish poet of Jutland, whose poetry is inspired by the nature and simple life of his native province.
100.
Karl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam (born 1859). Graduate in philosophy. Novelist and poet. Nobel prize tor Literature, 1916.