{{Short description|Three 19th-century Polish Romantic poets}} {{good article}} {{multiple image | align = right | footer = The Three Bards of Polish Romantic literature | image1 = Adam Mickiewicz według dagerotypu paryskiego z 1842 roku.jpg | width1 = 164 | alt1 = Mickiewicz | caption1 = [[Adam Mickiewicz]] | image2 = Juliusz Słowacki.PNG | width2 = 150 | alt2 = Słowacki | caption2 = [[Juliusz Słowacki]] | image3 = Scheffer Zygmunt Krasiński.jpg | width3 = 160 | alt3 = Krasiński | caption3 = [[Zygmunt Krasiński]] }} The '''Three Bards''' ({{Langx|pl|trzej wieszcze}}, {{IPA|pl|ˈtʂɛj ˈvjɛʂt͡ʂɛ|IPA}}) are the [[national poet]]s of [[Polish Romanticism|Polish Romantic literature]]. The term is almost exclusively used to denote [[Adam Mickiewicz]] (1798–1855), [[Juliusz Słowacki]] (1809–1849) and [[Zygmunt Krasiński]] (1812–1859). Of the three, Mickiewicz is considered the most influential and Krasiński the least.
The Three Bards were thought not only to voice Polish national sentiments but to foresee their nation's future. They lived and worked in exile following the [[partitions of Poland]], which had ended the existence of the independent Polish state. Their [[Tragedy|tragic]] [[Poetry|poetical]] [[Play (theatre)|plays]] and [[epic poetry]], written in the aftermath of the [[November Uprising|1830 Uprising]] against [[Congress Poland|Russian rule]], revolved around the Polish struggle for independence from the three occupying foreign empires.
The concept of the "Three Bards" emerged in the second half of the 19th century and remains influential among scholars of Polish literature. At the same time, it has been criticized by some as anachronistic. As Krasiński's influence has waned, some have suggested replacing him in the trinity with [[Cyprian Norwid]], or adding Norwid or [[Stanisław Wyspiański]] as a fourth bard.
==Meaning== The [[Polish language|Polish]] term "{{lang|pl|wieszcz}}{{hsp}}" ({{IPA|pl|/vjɛʂt͡ʂ/|IPA|audio=LL-Q809 (pol)-Olaf-wieszcz.wav}}) is often understood in the history of [[Polish literature]] as denoting a "poet-[[prophet]]" or "[[Fortune-telling|soothsayer]]".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Lanoux |first=Andrea |date=2001 |title=Canonizing the Wieszcz: The Subjective Turn in Polish Literary Biography in the 1860s |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3086125 |journal=The Slavic and East European Journal |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=624–640 |doi=10.2307/3086125 |jstor=3086125 |issn=0037-6752|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Koropeckyj |first=Roman Robert. |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303837717 |title=Re-creating the "wieszcz": Versions of the life of Adam Mickiewicz, 1828–1897 |year=1990 |id={{ProQuest|303837717}} }}</ref>{{Rp|page=8}}<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Wyka |first=Kazimierz |title=Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna |publisher=PWN |year=1969 |volume=12 |pages=300–301 |language=pl |chapter=wieszcz}}</ref> This term, often rendered in English as "[[bard]]" (in the "bard" sense of "a poet, especially an exalted national poet"<ref>''The American Heritage Dictionary'', Second College Edition, Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982, p. 157.</ref>), was an approximation to the ancient [[Latin]] {{lang|la|poeta vates}} ('poet-prophet') – the poet to whom the gods had granted the ability to see the future.<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=8}}<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=wieszcz |url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/wieszcz;3996041.html |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=Encyklopedia PWN |language=pl}}</ref>
The term "Three Bards" ({{langx|pl|trzej wieszcze}}) is applied almost exclusively to [[Adam Mickiewicz]] (1798–1855), [[Juliusz Słowacki]] (1809–1849), and [[Zygmunt Krasiński]] (1812–1859),<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Winkler2018" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> the most celebrated Romantic poets of Poland.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=srZDAAAAYAAJ&q=Mickiewicz,+S%C5%82owacki,+Krasi%C5%84ski,+%22most+celebrated%22 |title=Poland's Case for Independence: Being a Series of Essays Illustrating the Continuance of Her National Life |date=1916 |publisher=Polish information committee |page=293 |language=en |quote=Slowacki, Krasinski, and especially Mickiewicz, the most celebrated poets of modern romanticism in Poland}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMgaAAAAMAAJ&q=Mickiewicz,+S%C5%82owacki,+Krasi%C5%84ski,+%22most+celebrated%22 |title=World Literature Today |date=1978 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |page=310 |language=en |quote=Poland's three most celebrated romantic poets}}</ref> Of the three, Mickiewicz is considered the most, Krasiński the least, influential.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Winkler2018">{{cite book|author=Winkler|first=Markus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXVsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|title=Barbarian: Explorations of a Western Concept in Theory, Literature, and the Arts: Vol. I: From the Enlightenment to the Turn of the Twentieth Century|year=2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-476-04485-3|page=202}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Inglot |first=Mieczysław |date=2001 |title=Norwid wobec koncepcji trzech wieszczów |url=https://ossolineum.pl/index.php/czasopismo-znio/numery-archiwalne/zeszyt-12-2001/ |journal=Czasopismo Zakładu Narodowego Imienia Ossolińskich |volume=12}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Okoń |first=Waldemar |date=2019 |title=Henryk Siemiradzki i trzej wieszczowie |trans-title=Siemiradzki and the three bards |url=https://quart.uni.wroc.pl/pl-54/ |journal=Quart |language=pl |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=3–81}} [https://publikacje.pan.pl/Content/119882?format_id=1 English version]</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wandycz |first=Piotr S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dUHCwAAQBAJ&dq=mickiewicz%2C+s%C5%82owacki%2C+krasi%C5%84ski&pg=PA183 |title=The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795–1918 |year=1975 |page=183 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-80361-6 |language=en}}</ref>
Of the trio, Mickiewicz – the master of the [[Epic poetry|epic]] and [[Lyric poetry|lyric]] – has been called the poet of the present; Krasiński – the prophet and seer – the poet who foretells the future; Słowacki – the [[dramatist]] – the [[panegyrist]] of the past.<ref name="WarnerRunkle1902">{{cite book|author1=Charles Dudley Warner|author2=Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle|author3=Hamilton Wright Mabie|author4=George H. Warner|title=Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern: A–Z|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuYpAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA13508|access-date=14 February 2011|year=1902|publisher=J.A. Hill & company|pages=13508–13510}}</ref> Another scheme portrays Mickiewicz as the "positive voice of history", Słowacki as "the voice of the 'demonic' dark side of the fate of the Polish nation", and Krasiński as "the voice of [[Catholic Church in Poland|Polish Catholicism]]".<ref name=":2" />
==History== Imported to [[Poland]] around the 16th century along with many other [[Sarmatism]]s, the term {{lang|pl|wieszcz}} was initially applied to poets generically, sometimes to foreign ones like [[Homer]], and sometimes to native ones like [[Jan Kochanowski]] (sometimes called "the {{lang|pl|wieszcz}} of [[Czarnolas, Zwoleń County|Czarnolas]]"<ref>Much as England's [[William Shakespeare]] is sometimes referred to as "the [[Bard of Avon]]".</ref>). However, with the 19th-century advent of [[Romanticism]], the term began to be applied almost exclusively to the trio of Mickiewicz, Słowacki, and Krasiński.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":4" /> Mickiewicz himself endorsed the use of the term, in 1842 calling himself a {{lang|pl|wieszcz}}.<ref name=":7" /> Though the three poets did not form a particular poetic group or movement, they all began to be seen as spiritual leaders of a nation deprived of its political freedom (Poland ceased to exist as an independent state in 1795, following the [[partitions of Poland]], and would not reestabilish full sovereignty until 1918).<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Król |first=Marcin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XBq1AAAAIAAJ&q=mickiewicz+slowacki+krasinski+%22przywodcy+duchowi%22 |title=Romantyzm: piekło i niebo Polaków |date=1998 |page=63 |publisher=Res Publica – Fundacja |isbn=978-83-910975-1-9 |language=pl}}</ref> They also often adverted to [[folklore]] which linked the expression {{lang|pl|wieszcz}} to folk sages, such as [[Wernyhora]], of legend and folk tale.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":4" />
The portrayal of Mickiewicz, Słowacki, and Krasiński as the three most important poets in Polish history can be traced to the 1860 expanded edition of {{ill|Lesław Łukaszewicz|pl|Lesław Łukaszewicz}}'s {{lang|pl|Rys dziejów literatury polskiej}} ('Outline of the History of Polish Literature'). This view was popularized in the [[Great Emigration]] period by other works on literary history, such as those by [[Julian Bartoszewicz]] and [[Włodzimierz Spasowicz]]; and by succeeding decades of Polish textbooks, contributing to the establishment of a {{ill|Polish literary canon|pl|Kanon literatury polskiej}}.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zawodniak |first=Mariusz |url=https://repozytorium.ukw.edu.pl/handle/item/5833?show=full |title=Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński: romantyczne uwarunkowania i współczesne konteksty |date=2001 |publisher=Mazowiecka Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Pedagogiczna |isbn=978-83-87222-20-8 |editor-last=Owczarz |editor-first=Ewa |language=pl |chapter='Reakcyjny kanon', czyli trójca wieszczów w klasowej wizji romantyzmu (kartka z dziejów recepcji) |editor-last2=Smulski |editor-first2=Jerzy}}</ref>
This idea has endured, though at times criticized by scholars (particularly, in the early 20th century, by {{ill|Adolf Nowaczyński|pl|Adolf Nowaczyński}} and {{ill|Jan Nepomucen Miller|pl|Jan Nepomucen Miller}}) as anachronistic or otherwise incorrect. There has also been discussion concerning whether one of the Three Bards – particularly Krasiński – deserves to be one of the trio, and whether the trio should be expanded to include other poets.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":4" /> Nonetheless, according to literary historian [[Kazimierz Wyka]], since the mid-20th century the trio of Bards – Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński – has been recognized as historical and classic, and as such, immuatable, despite periodic criticisms and challenges.<ref name=":7" />
== The Fourth Bard == {{multiple image | align = right | footer = Contenders to the title of Fourth Bard of Polish literature | image1 = Cyprian Kamil Norwid 1883 (20839216) (cropped).jpg | width1 = 154 | alt1 = Norwid | caption1 = [[Cyprian Norwid]] | image2 = Stanisław Wyspiański3.png | width2 = 129 | alt2 = Wyspiański | caption2 = [[Stanisław Wyspiański]] | image3 = Joseph Conrad-remastered to black and white.png |caption3 = [[Joseph Conrad]] | width3 = 130 }} The early-20th-century rediscovery of the writings of [[Cyprian Norwid]] (1821–1883) led some to call him a "fourth bard"<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/underappreciated-poet-norwid-honoured-on-his-200th-birthday-with-events-across-the-country-24932 |title='Underappreciated' poet Norwid honoured on his 200th birthday with events across the country | access-date = 24 September 2021}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Trojanowska |first1=Tamara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2J5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Norwid+%22four+poets%22&pg=PA68 |title=Being Poland: A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918 |last2=Niżyńska |first2=Joanna |last3=Czapliński |first3=Przemysław |year=2018 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-5018-3 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=68}} or to count him among the "four greated poets of Poland".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salata |first=Kris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_Cn4keUdGgC&dq=Mickiewicz%2C+S%C5%82owacki%2C+Krasi%C5%84ski%2C+%22most+famous%22&pg=PA63 |title=The Unwritten Grotowski: Theory and Practice of the Encounter |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-15811-7 |language=en|page=63}}</ref> Unlike the writings of the Three Bards, Norwid's were not popular in his lifetime or for several decades thereafter. Consequently, according to Polish literary critics {{ill|Przemysław Czapliński|pl|Przemysław Czapliński}}, Tamara Trojanowska, and Joanna Niżyńska, his work "remained isolated [and] unnoticed", and was "overshadowed by the three earlier literary 'giants' [Mickiewicz, Słowacki, and Krasiński] long celebrated in exile and at home"; hence Norwid failed to influence or affect his contemporaries to the extent that did the Three Bards.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=68}}
Some literary critics, however, have been so skeptical of the value of Krasiński's work as to consider Norwid a ''third'' rather than a fourth bard.<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Cant |first=Katrin |date=2009 |title=Historical Memory in Post-Communist Poland: Warsaw's Monuments after 1989 |url=https://www.academia.edu/812337 |journal=Studies in Slavic Cultures |volume=8 |pages=90–119}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brogan |first=Terry V. F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OugSEAAAQBAJ&dq=Norwid+%22third+bard%22&pg=PA276 |title=The Princeton Handbook of Multicultural Poetries |year=2021 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22821-1 |language=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=276}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygielska |first=Małgorzata |url=https://rebus.us.edu.pl/handle/20.500.12128/6177 |title=Przyboś czyta Norwida |date=2012 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego |isbn=978-83-226-2066-3 |language=pl|page=8}}</ref>
Other critics have nominated [[Stanisław Wyspiański]] (1869–1907) as fourth bard.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morawinska |first=Agnieszka |title=A View from the Window |date=1987-01-01 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/css/21/2/article-p57_4.xml |journal=Canadian-American Slavic Studies |language=en |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=57–78 |doi=10.1163/221023987X00178 |issn=2210-2396|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cavanaugh |first=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XeFUnQ5T4ZsC&dq=Wyspia%C5%84ski+%22fourth+bard%22&pg=PA147 |title=Out Looking in: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890–1918 |date=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-21190-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=147}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Stephan |first=Halina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOYk5PirP0UC&dq=Wyspia%C5%84ski+%22fourth+bard%22&pg=PA184 |title=Transcending the Absurd: Drama and Prose of Sławomir Mrożek |date=1984 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-0113-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=184}} His 1901 play ''[[The Wedding (1901 play)|The Wedding]]'' ({{lang|pl|Wesele}}) is considered the last great classic of Polish drama, and [[Rochelle Heller Stone]] writes that it alone "earned him the title of fourth bard".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=184}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Rochelle Heller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbnADwAAQBAJ&dq=Wyspia%C5%84ski+%22fourth+bard%22&pg=PA14 |title=Boleslaw Lesmian: The Poet and His Poetry |year=2018 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-30326-3 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=14}}
Literary historian {{ill|Józef Ujejski|pl|Józef Ujejski}} named [[Joseph Conrad]] another bard.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zabierowski |first=Stefan |date=2014 |title=Polskie spory o Conrada w latach 1897–1945 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=430304 |journal=Konteksty Kultury |language=Polish |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=256–268 |issn=2083-7658}}</ref> Other 19th-century writers who have been called bards include [[Józef Bohdan Zaleski]], [[Seweryn Goszczyński]], [[Wincenty Pol]], and [[Kornel Ujejski]].<ref name=":6" /> 20th-century poets who have been called Polish bards include [[Witold Gombrowicz]] and [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel]] laureate [[Czesław Miłosz]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holmgren |first=Beth |date=1989 |title=Witold Gombrowicz within the Wieszcz Tradition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/308286 |journal=The Slavic and East European Journal |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=556–570 |doi=10.2307/308286 |jstor=308286 |issn=0037-6752|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Visual arts== In the visual arts, the term {{lang|pl|wieszcz}} has occasionally been applied to [[Jan Matejko]] and [[Artur Grottger]] as, respectively, the first and second Polish bards of painting, with either [[Józef Brandt]] or [[Henryk Siemiradzki]] most commonly named a third bard.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6" />
==See also== * {{slink|History of philosophy in Poland|Polish Messianism}} * [[Romanticism in Poland]] * [[Tymon Zaborowski]] — also known as "{{lang|pl|Wieszcz Miodoboru}}{{-"}} ('the Bard of the Honey Harvest')
==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{Cite book |last=Markiewicz |first=Henryk |title=Rodowód i losy mitu trzech wieszczów: pamięci Kazimierza Wyki |trans-title=The origin and fate of the myth of the three bards: dedicated to the memory of Kazimierz Wyka |date=1984 |publisher=Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich |isbn= |language=pl}}{{ISBN?}}
{{Three Bards}} {{Adam Mickiewicz}}
[[Category:Trios]] [[Category:Polish male poets]] [[Category:Bards]]