Adam Mickiewicz

The most exceptional of Poland's Romantics - a poet, columnist, political activist, and visionary. Born in 1798; deceased in 1855.

Mickiewicz was born in Nowogrodek in Lithuania and always thought of this country as his homeland. He studied at Vilnius University and went on to teach at the provincial school in Kaunus. He was among the founders of the secret and patriotic Towarzystwo Filomatow / Philomaths' Society. An active member of the organization, he was arrested with a group of friends and imprisoned in the Basilian Monastery in Vilnius (1823-1824). He spent the years between 1824 and 1829 in central Russia, specifically in Odessa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, becoming a member of elite progressive circles of the Russian intelligentsia. In 1829 he embarked on a grand tour of Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. He attended the lectures of Hegel in Berlin and made numerous contacts within the international artistic community throughout areas he visited. Following the outbreak of the November Insurrection in 1830, he made a fruitless attempt to make his way back to his homeland. He settled in Paris in 1832 and remained there except for brief stays in Lausanne (1839), where he lectured on Latin literature, and in Rome (1848), where he attempted to gain the support of Pope Pius IX for the liberation movements burgeoning in Europe at that time, referred to collectively as the "Spring of Peoples."

Life was difficult for the poet in Paris. He lacked any regular sources of income. The migr community was fragmented by incessant political infighting. For some time, Mickiewicz participated in public life, working with organizations like the Towarzystwo Literackie (Literary Society) and the Towarzystwo Narodowe Polskie (Polish National Society). In 1833 he was the editor of a magazine titled "Pielgrzym Polski" ("Polish Pilgrim"), where he simultaneously served as a columnist. He was friends with the likes of the Reverend H. de Lamennais, Count de Montalembert, and G. Sand. His marriage in 1834 to Celina Szymanowska became a source of even greater troubles. The couple had six children before Szymanowska became afflicted with a mental illness. Mickiewicz withdrew from public life until 1840, when he was appointed to head the newly created faculty of Slavonic Literatures at the College de France. Mickiewicz, J. Michelet, and E. Quinnet constituted the democratic opposition to the July monarchy at the College. In 1841 the poet joined the circle that surrounded Towiansky, the leader of a sect that believed in a new revelation and a renaissance of spiritual life (at the time there were dozens of religious sects of this kind in France). Mickiewicz's active propagation of Towianism, and even more so his radical political and social views resulted in his being suspended as a professor.

While in Rome in 1848, Mickiewicz created the Legion Polski (Polish Legion), which served the province of Lombardy, engaged in a struggle at the time. Mickiewicz set down the legion's aims and program in a text titled SKLAD ZASAD / A SET OF PRINCIPLES. Subsequently, with a group of French colleagues and migrs, he founded a publication titled "La Tribune des Peuples," which advocated a radical social program. Further publication of the paper was suspended when the Russian Embassy protested, and Mickiewicz was placed under police supervision following the coup d'etat in 1851. The poet's last patriotic act came in the form of another attempt to form a Polish Legion to fight against Russia after France joined the Crimean War. It was with this aim in mind that Mickiewicz arrived in Istanbul in September of 1855, where he passed away unexpectedly. He was buried in France, in the Polish cemetery at Montmorency. His coffin was moved to a sarcophagus in Wawel Cathedral in Krakow during a ceremony held in 1900.

Mickiewicz left behind a literary output both vast and varied. It encompasses poetry, epic poems, dramas, and essays, and includes many fragments and unfinished works. After a series of attempts at writing in a classical vein, in 1822 he published his "Poezje" / "Poems" vol. I, which are considered to mark the beginning of Polish Romanticism (2nd expanded edition, 1829). In his "Przedmowa" / "Foreword" and in the ballad ROMANTYCZNOSC / ROMANCE, he formulated a new program of literature that would refer to folk beliefs and imaginings, to the world of feelings and the imagination as opposed to the "eye glass of the learned man," to a sensitivity to nature and the presence of the "unseen." This poetry blurred the rigid borders of genres, drawing equally on poetic folk tales, ballads, and musings (the best-known works being the afore-mentioned ROMANTYCZNOSC / ROMANCE, SWITEZ, SWITEZIANKA, TRZECH BUDRYSOW, and PARYS / PARIS).

The second volume of "Poezje" / "Poems" (1823) contained DZIADY / FOREFATHER'S EVE parts II and IV as well as the historical poem GRAZYNA. POWIESC LITEWSKA / GRAZYNA - A LITHUANIAN STORY. Emerging from the tradition established by Scott and Byron, this epic story about a Lithuanian princess who dresses as a man to stand at the head of armies that go to battle against the Teutonic Order was the poet's first attempt at creating a Romantic notion of patriotism and conceiving of the homeland as a local commonwealth.

In 1829, following a voyage through Russia, Mickiewicz published his SONETY / SONNETS (Crimean and Odessan), which in sophisticated classicistic form describe the poet's mystical feelings of oneness with nature, his experience of nature as sacrum.

Published in 1828, KONRAD WALLENROD. POWIESC HISTORYCZNA Z DZIEJOW LITEWSKICH I PRUSKICH / KONRAD WALLENROD - A HISTORICAL TALE FROM LITHUANIAN AND PRUSSIAN ANNALS is a model Romantic historical epic. Set in the 14th century, it carefully describes the local culture of the time in a story about a character caught between contradictory systems of values. The tale tells of a Grand Master of the Teutonic Order who discovers his Lithuanian roots and experiences an onset of patriotism. He proceeds to lead the Order to destruction thus betraying his sense of honor and the chivalrous code. The work was read as a metaphor of the moral conflicts felt by participants of patriotic conspiracies. Fragments of the epic poem, POWIESC WAJDELOTY / WAJDELOTA'S TALE and ALPUHARA became autonomous works in time and continue to be part of the living poetic tradition (remaining among the works most favored by participants of recitation contests).

Mickiewicz created the third part of FOREFATHERS' EVE in Dresden in 1832. It combines with parts II and IV, written earlier, to constitute a whole characteristic of Romantic drama, a whole that is fragmentary, loosely structured, stylistically varied. Parts II and IV refer to pagan rituals aimed at bringing the souls of the dead back to life. They present folk beliefs that focus on the unity of the seen and unseen worlds and on the possibility for interference between the two; the two sections also seem to confirm a simple, intuitive moral code. Part IV also introduces and portrays one possible version of the Romantic hero - the unhappy lover (Gustaw). Part III, on the other hand, is set in times contemporaneous to Mickiewicz and is about the imprisonment and trial of the youths who joined the Philomaths' Society. It takes place in prison cells and the salons of Tsarist bureaucrats. Parts IV and II are linked through their protagonist: between the two sections the unhappy lover Gustaw transforms into the patriot and insurrectionist Konrad. The climaxes in sections II and IV are the Great Improvisation (a monologue in which Konrad speaks out against God for making his nation the victim of a crime) and the Vision of Father Peter (who in a moment of piety and love of God experiences a vision of a Poland reborn in the future). The last section of the Dresden episode of FOREFATHERS' EVE is the epic USTEP / PASSAGE, which is directed against Tsarist despotism and concludes with the poem DO PRZYJACIOL MOSKALI / TO OUR FRIENDS, THE MUSCOVITES.

In Paris Mickiewicz wrote and published what is perhaps his most important work: PAN TADEUSZ CZYLI OSTATNI ZAJAZD NA LITWIE. HISTORIA SZLACHECKA Z ROKU 1811 WE DWUNASTU KSIEGACH WIERSZEM / PAN TADEUSZ, OR THE LAST FORAY IN LITHUANIA. A TALE OF THE GENTRY IN THE YEAR 1811 SET DOWN IN VERSE IN TWELVE BOOKS (1834). Drawing on the traditions of the historical novel, poetic novel, epic poem, and descriptive poem, Mickiewicz created a "national epic" that is one of a kind and has no equivalents in literature. The author used various means, including lyricism, pathos, irony, and realism, to recreate the world of the Lithuanian gentry on the eve of the arrival of Napoleonic armies. The colorful group of Sarmations depicted in the poem, often in conflict and conspiring against each other, is united by a patriotic bond that is reborn through shared hopes for a rapid restitution of independence. One of the main characters of the poem is the mysterious Friar Robak, a Napoleonic emissary and in the past - as it turns out - a hotheaded nobleman. In the guise of a monk, he seeks to make amends for sins committed as a youth by serving his country. The poem's end is joyous and hopeful, a mood the author knew was not confirmed by actual historical events. Mickiewicz designed the work to "uplift hearts" in expectation of a brighter future.

Mickiewicz's other important works include his so-called Lausanne lyrics. Written in 1839-40, this series of poems is saturated with the poet's mystical sense of unity with nature. In the poems, Mickiewicz offers his reflections on time, eternity, and transcendence. The essays he wrote at this time were in the vein of Romantic messianism, also common in French thought (Saint-Martin, de Maistre, de Lamennais, the Saint-Simonists) and in German philosophy and literature. Though there were many currents of messianism, nearly all proponents of the philosophy shared the conviction that the ongoing period of suffering and chaos would be followed by a Great Transformation comparable to the second coming of the Savior. This change would see Christian principles applied to all social relations and in politics. Depending on the version of messianism, the role of savior was assigned either to outstanding individuals or to specific communities or populations.

Already in evidence in his preceding works (primarily in part III of FOREFATHERS' EVE), Mickiewicz gave full expression to his messianic themes in a work titled KSIEGI NARODU I PIELGRZYMSTWA POLSKIEGO / THE BOOKS OF THE POLISH NATION AND OF THE POLISH PILGRIMAGE (1832). Published in the form of a missal, the work was nearly Biblical in style and was also designed to comfort and offer guidelines to the many emigrants who arrived in France following the downfall of the November Insurrection in Poland The publication was distributed free of charge and in it the poet expressed his conviction about the special role that Poland had to play as a leader in the struggle of peoples against the tyranny of governments, about Poland's religious and political responsibilities to humankind. A papal edict condemned the book for its use of religious arguments as justification for the pursuit of a radical social program (which included the enfranchisement of peasants and the introduction of universal civil rights that would encompass women and Jews).

The lectures Mickiewicz delivered at the College de France were recompiled based on students' notes and published as the COURS DE LA LITTERATURE SLAVE (in their entirety in 1849). In Courses I and II, Mickiewicz discussed Polish, Russian, Czech, and Serbian literature in the context of the histories and cultures of these nations, effectively revealing these national literatures to Western intellectuals. In Course III, he presented the contemporary literature of his time, often doing so in a polemical manner. In the fourth Course, Mickiewicz reverted to his messianic philosophy of history, presenting his views on the philosophical and religious life of the Slavs. Underlining the spiritual crisis of a western Europe dominated by a restrictive rationalism, he saw the spiritual depth of Slavs as a counterbalance. According to Mickiewicz, the Slavic peoples were the retainers of "living truths" and therefore capable of leading humanity towards moral rebirth. By this time, the poet had extended the messianic mission to the entire Slavic world as well as France, which gained the title of a "nation of action."

Mickiewicz's work has had a permanent impact on Polish culture, influencing collective consciousness, literature, and art. For over two centuries it remained a permanent element of any literary education and served as a basis for shaping feelings of patriotism. His poetry has strongly impacted the Polish language and imagination, even making its way into everyday speech. Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries is full of metaphors and quotations from, as well as references to, the works of Mickiewicz. He has inspired writers like Juliusz Slowacki, Boleslaw Prus, Stanislaw Wyspianski, and Stefan Zeromski. Contemporary poets like Czeslaw Milosz and Tadeusz Rozewicz continue to draw on his work to this day.

Konrad from FOREFATHERS' EVE became the archetypal Polish tragic hero. FOREFATHERS' EVE proved a challenge for the best Polish theatres, and the Great Improvisation for the most outstanding actors. Each staging has been a major cultural event (the most significant productions being those of Stanislaw Wyspianski - Krakow 1901; Leon Schiller - Lviv 1932, Warsaw 1934; Kazimierz Dejmek - Warsaw 1967; Konrad Swinarski - Krakow 1973). In the year 2000 Andrzej Seweryn staged fragments of the work in French translation in Brussels.

Numerous attempts have also been made to bring PAN TADEUSZ to the stage and screen. Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk mounted a theatre production based on the poem in Krakow in 1945. Adam Hanuszkiewicz created a television mini-series (1970-71), and Ryszard Ordynski made a film on the basis of the work in 1928. Andrzej Wajda's screen version from the year 2000 generated significant attention and garnered recognition around the world.

Mickiewicz has also inspired painters and graphic artists (illustrations to his works were produced by Gerson, Andriolli, Smokowski, and Lesser), as well as composers (Chopin, Moniuszko, Szymanowski, Paderewski, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov all composed pieces based on the poet's works).

Adam Mickiewicz himself, often depicted as the symbol of the National Poet, was the subject of many portraits, drawings, and medallions (his likeness reproduced by Wankowicz, Oleszkiewicz, Norwid, and Delacroix among others).

The most famous statues of Mickiewicz can be found in Warsaw (Cyprian Godebski), Krakow (Teodor Rygier), Poznan (B. Wojtowicz), and in Paris (E. Bourdelle).

Mickiewcz's philosophical and social views also proved potent. His singular mixture of religion, Romantic nationalism, and social radicalism caused many political groups - ranging from those on the left to those on the extreme right - to cite him as an inspiration. His Slavic "messianism" proved significant to the shaping of national identities in the countries of central and eastern Europe that did not enjoy independent statehood.

In current discussions about the shape of a United Europe, Mickiewicz is cited as a pioneer of the vision of a federation of free nations and citizens, and as a herald of the concept of the homeland as a commonwealth built upon cultural bonds and a shared system of values. These thoughts on the poet are reflected in the collective work titled "Le Verbe et Histoire. Mickiewicz, la France et l'Europe" published recently in Paris (2001).

The numerous mementoes that remain of Mickiewicz can be seen at the Polish Library in Paris, where the poet's son Wladyslaw founded a commemorative museum in 1903.

Mickiewicz's works, either in whole or in part, have been translated - in many cases multiple times - into more than twenty languages. The most important Polish editions include "Pisma" / "Writings" vol. 1-11, 1860-61; "Dziela" / "Works" vol. 1-16, 1948-55 (Wyd. Narodowe / National Publishers); "Dziela" / "Works" vol. 1-16, 1953 (Wyd. Jubileuszowe / Jubilee Publishers). Literature on Mickiewicz is already vast and continues to expand. The "Kronika zycia i tworczosci Mickiewicza" / "A Chronicle of the Life and Work of Mickiewicz" vol. 1-9 (vols. 2 and 3 are currently being prepared), published by the Intytut Badan Literackich / Institute for Literary Studies, is a valuable source of information about the poet.