Who Were Poland’s ‘Wieszcze Narodowi’? And Why Do They Remain Important Today?
Many countries have national poets, but only Poland has wieszcze narodowi. These Polish figures – Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński – embodied the role of national poet-prophets, reflecting on the nation’s past, promoting its culture in an era of political crisis and shaping the thought of generations to come.
The term ‘wieszcz’ is commonly translated from Polish as ‘bard’ or ‘poet-prophet’, with ‘narodowi’ indicating ‘national’. It is the role of prophet that sets the wieszcz apart; they are not just poets, but national soothsayers, seers, wizards of words. Though the term existed in Polish before the era of Romanticism, it since has come to be associated with three great Romantic poets whose lives and work were read as a repository of the Polish nation. Writing from abroad of a Poland that no longer existed as a political entity, Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński preserved Poland on the page and offered their compatriots visions of the future. While the wieszcze might be compared to other national poets such as Goethe, Pushkin or Byron, their role as guardians and guides for the nation sets them apart.
For those unfamiliar with Polish history, this might seem an outsized role for a poet. Why were writers, and not statesmen, so important for Poland’s survival? The answer to this becomes clearer when one considers the political circumstances of the time. Poland had disappeared from the map of Europe in 1795 after a series of partitions by its neighbours, and subsequent uprisings staged to restore its independence were all defeated. The wieszcze thus became spiritual leaders of a nation that lacked political authorities and institutions. Placing the emotion and individualism characteristic of broader European Romanticism in service of the national cause, Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Krasiński imbued their lives and work with an activist concern for history and personal sacrifice. Though they themselves were not on the front lines of the struggle for freedom, the words of the wieszcze inspired those fighting for independence and offered the stateless nation a spiritual guide.
Poets, of course, cannot simply decide to be the timeless voice of the nation. The wieszcze required an audience to draw from their words wisdom and inspiration. When Mickiewicz released his first volumes of poetry in the 1820s, Poland was ready for such a figure. Almost immediately, critics hailed him as a national poet. In the decades that followed, as the works of Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Krasiński found wider distribution and started to appear in textbooks, the broader public joined with literary critics in recognizing the trio as wieszcze narodowi. Poles, both at home and abroad, were hungry for national figures to turn to – and the wieszcze, each in their own way, offered a vision of Polishness persisting.
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Still from ‘Pan Tadeusz’, directed by Andrzej Wajda, pictured: Grażyna Szapołowska, Michał Żebrowski, photo: Mirek Noworyta / Agencja SE / East News
Though the power of the wieszcze was rooted in the political turmoil of the 19th century, their influence did not end when Poland regained independence. Instead, the wieszcze have remained important figures in the nation – invoked both in periods of national strife and celebration. The Interwar leader Józef Piłsudski kept a copy of Słowacki’s writing on his desk and oversaw the interment of the poet’s ashes at Wawel Castle. Resistance fighters turned to Mickiewicz for inspiration in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation. The cancellation by communist authorities of a performance of Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve in 1968 sparked protests and fostered a growing resistance movement. Pope John Paul II quoted Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz in his inaugural homily, and the poet’s work resonated across the Solidarity movement’s push for freedom.
So, who were these three poet-prophets whose work has reverberated across generations?
Of the three wieszcze, Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) looms largest. Described by scholar Maria Janion as the ‘first amongst Poles,’ Mickiewicz’s 1822 Ballads and Romances is often credited with setting the tone for Romanticism in Poland. The poem Romanticism from that collection declares:
Text
…the people believe reverently:
Faith and love are more discerning
Than lenes or learning.
Mickiewicz insists upon belief in that which is beyond knowing. This privileging of the people’s faith would be put into service of the national cause – serving a Poland in which ‘people believed reverently’, but that did not exist politically.
Born in Nowogródek in Lithuania, Mickiewicz spent most of his life outside his native land. Arrested as a member of a secret patriotic organization, Mickiewicz was sent to Russia in 1824. Upon leaving Russia in 1829, he travelled across Europe, stopping in Germany, Switzerland and Italy before settling in Paris. Though physically distant from Poland, the nation was at the heart of his work. His 1828 historical epic Konrad Wallenrod unfolds against the backdrop of the 14th-century conflict between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Order of the Teutonic Knights. Wallenrod, upon discovering his Lithuanian heritage, leads the Teutonic Order under his command to ruin in an act of patriotic sacrifice. Mickiewicz’s sprawling, multi-part Forefathers’ Eve (published between 1822 and 1860) blends Slavic folklore and Romantic philosophy in one of the great works of Romantic drama. The work’s famous Great Improvisation articulates Mickiewicz’s vision of the Romantic poet-prophet and the nation’s destined resurrection. And with the publication of Pan Tadeusz in 1834, Mickiewicz gave Poland a national epic – recreating in verse the lost world of the Lithuanian gentry. Of the work, Zygmunt Krasiński said:
Text
No European nation of our day has such an epic as Pan Tadeusz. In it Don Quixote has been fused with the Iliad. The poet stood on the border line between a vanishing generation and our own […] he has made immortal a dead generation, which now will never pass away.
Author
From https://culture.pl/en/work/pan-tadeusz-adam-mickiewicz
Ensuring the legacy of those who came before him, Mickiewicz cemented his own lasting place in Polish culture. His influence is everywhere, but those looking for an easy introduction might watch Andrzej Wajda’s 1999 film Pan Tadeusz or listen to one of his poems recorded by Polish musicians such as Marek Grechuta, Czesław Niemen, or Ryszard ‘Peja’ Andrzejewski.
Though his influence was perhaps not as monumental as that of Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849) left behind a rich body of innovative and impactful work. Younger than Mickiewicz, Słowacki was always somewhat in his shadow, which laid the groundwork for an ongoing competition for the title ‘national poet’. The literary rivalry found Mickiewicz dismissing Słowacki’s verse as ‘a beautiful church without a god’, while Słowacki expressed scepticism over Mickiewicz’s view of patriotic suffering.
Many of Słowacki’s works might be read as in dialog with Mickiewicz, yet they also stand alone as engaging gems of Polish literature. Like Mickiewicz, Słowacki was not an active participant in the political uprisings against partition, but rather reflected on them in writing from abroad. His 1833 drama Kordian brings together a cast of real and symbolic characters to assess the failed November Uprising of 1830. Like Forefathers’ Eve, the work examines the place of the individual in history and considers power of action versus poetry. Balladyna (published in 1839) is a genre-defying dramatic blend of murder, myth and magic. Set in the time of legends, the play tells the story of two sisters vying for love and power in what has been described as a Slavic mashup of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Macbeth and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. With the digressive poem Beniowski (1840), Słowacki offered a response to Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, rejecting the older poet’s idyllic view of the gentry in favour of a more critical evaluation of their role in the fall of Poland. Here again, Słowacki plays with genres, producing a work that moves between irony, lyricism, and solemnity as it reflects on history and art.
Słowacki’s influence can be found in the works of authors ranging from Stanisław Wyspiański to Julian Przyboś, artists such as Jan Matejko and Jacek Malczewski and composers Władysław Żeleński and Ludomir Różycki. Fans of the The Witcher might also notice Balladyna’s famous murder in a raspberry patch reproduced in the virtual world of the game.
Zygmunt Krasiński (1812-1859) was an accomplished poet, novelist, and playwright who, like Mickiewicz and Słowacki, spent most of his life living and writing abroad. He was unique amongst the wieszcze for his aristocratic background, and his father’s loyalty to the Russian tsar affected both his writing and personal life. Though his own beliefs diverged from those of his father, he remained opposed to the revolutionary views and calls for insurrection popular amongst many of his contemporaries.
Today, Krasiński is perhaps best remembered for his drama The Un-Divine Comedy (1835). The work moves between dimensions and brings together historical and symbolic figures in its critical evaluation of revolutionary movements. Like Forefathers’ Eve and Kordian, it chronicles the spiritual transformation of its hero and reflects on the power of art – although The Un-Divine Comedy is, as Czesław Miłosz reflected, a ‘strange Romantic drama’ in that it denounces the demonic side of poetry and denies any optimism for popular revolution.
Despite his philosophical differences with Krasiński, Mickiewicz featured The Un-Divine Comedy prominently in his lectures at the Collège de France. The play remains a fixture in Polish literature courses and on Polish stages, where it has been directed by luminaries such as Leon Schiller and Jerzy Grzegorzewski.
Can there be more than three?
Though Mickiewicz, Słowacki, and Krasiński are recognized as the essential wieszcze, other Polish writers have been discussed within the tradition of the national poet-prophet. The most common amongst these potential ‘fourth wieszcze’ is Cyprian Norwid. Born in 1821, Norwid was younger than Mickiewicz, Słowacki, and Krasiński, and his work went largely unappreciated in his time, despite his being a skilled poet, novelist, playwright, sculptor, and draughtsman. Norwid was critical of the strains of messianism that ran through much Polish Romantic literature, though he shared its concern with the individual and history. His innovative and idiosyncratic style found admirers within the modernist Young Poland movement at the turn of the 20th century, and he has remained a favourite of artists since. In 1970, the Polish rock star Czesław Niemen recorded a version of the poet’s Bema Pamięci Żałobny-Rapsod (To Bem’s Memory – A Funeral Rhapsody).
Over the course of the 20th century, a new generation of wieszcze were proposed, including Czesław Miłosz and Witold Gombrowicz. Like the wieszcze of the Romantic era, both men were charismatic and engaged with Polish social concerns while writing from exile abroad. Both men also were highly critical of the title. While undoubtedly steeped in Poland’s literary heritage, these authors pushed against the weight of tradition and demands to speak for the nation. Reflecting on his life, Gombrowicz noted in his Diary:
Text
My entire life I have fought not to be a ‘Polish writer’ but myself, Gombrowicz.
Author
Trans. Lillian Vallee
Rejecting the role of ‘national author’, Gombrowicz insisted upon a different relationship between the artist, literature and nation. In so doing, he helped forge a new path for Polish artists, albeit one ever engaged with what has come before.
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‘Balladyna’, directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski, pictured: Anna Sandowicz as Pustelnik & Piotr B. Dąbrowski as Kirkor, photo: Magda Hueckel / Polski Theatre in Poznań
Today, almost two centuries have passed since Mickiewicz published his first book of poems. Poland is a fully independent country with a vibrant and diverse cultural scene. It would seem as though the need for the wieszcze may have passed, yet Mickiewicz and his contemporaries remain a vital part of Polish culture. Schoolchildren recite their verse, and streets, theatres, and monuments across Poland (and beyond) bear their names and likenesses. Their work echoes through that of contemporary rappers, video game artists, filmmakers, authors and theatre directors as they find inspiration in – and push the boundaries of – tradition. Though Polish culture is ever evolving, you don’t have to be a prophet to predict that the wieszcze narodowi won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Written by Alena Aniskiewicz, Jun 2021
Sources: ‘The History of Polish Literature’ by Czesław Miłosz (University of California Press, 1983); ‘Being Poland: A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918’ edited by Tamara Trojanowska, Joanna Niżyńska, Przemysław Czapliński, Agnieszka Polakowska (University of Toronto Press, 2018), ‘Witold Gombrowicz Within the Wieszcz Tradition’ by Beth Holmgren (Slavic & East European Journal 33/4, 1989); ‘Canonizing the Wieszcz: The Subjective Turn in Polish Literary Biography in the 1860s’ by Andrea Lanoux (Slavic & East European Journal 45/4, 2001); ‘The Wizard’ by Jaroslaw Anders (The New Republic, 2010); Culture.pl
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