Ode to Youth
Ode to Youth | |
---|---|
by Adam Mickiewicz | |
Original title | Oda do młodości |
Written | 26 December 1820 |
Language | Polish |
Form | Ode |
Publication date | 1827 |
"Ode to Youth" (Polish: "Oda do młodości") is an 1820 poem by Polish Romantic-era poet, dramatist and essayist Adam Mickiewicz.
Background and critical reception
"Ode to Youth" was one of Mickiewicz' first poems, and one of his most popular and enduring ones, although the reception among critics has been mixed. It has been described by one literature scholar, Ignacy Chrzanowski, as "Mickiewicz's first masterpiece"; another scholar, Juliusz Kleiner, disagreed.[1]
The theme of the poem is the duties and rights of the youth in the service of an overarching, higher ideal.[2] The youth are said to have a moral obligation to take action.[3] Michael Ferber describes it as "unabashedly Schillerian in inspiration", and notes that the poem "deftly exploits neo-Classicist poetics in order to subvert the discourse that engendered them."[4] The poem has also been described as a manifesto of the secret student organization, the Philomaths, to which Mickiewicz belonged at that time.[5]
Publishing
Mickiewicz finished the poem in 1820, the year of his debut as a poet, but it was not included in his first tome of poetry, published that year.
The work was first published, unauthorized, in Lviv (in the Austrian Partition) 1827; the first version authorized by Mickiewicz was published in Paris in 1838.[9][10][11]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-83-211-1761-4. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. XX, 1975, p. 695.
- ISBN 978-1-4411-1764-9. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-5453-6. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-83-7389-123-4. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-4471-5. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna; Instytut Badań Literackich (Polska Akademia Nauk) (1972). Maria Konopnicka: materiały z sesji naukowej w 60 rocznice̜ s̀mierci poetki (Kalisz, 16-17, IX, 1970). Ludowa spółdzienia wydawnicza. p. 96. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-4471-5. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-83-04-02613-1. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ Teksty drugie. Instytut Badań Literackich PAN. 1998. p. 33. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-4471-5. Retrieved 13 June 2013.