Where Is Poland? | Polish culture abroad

Chapter 4

Polish culture abroad

The map shows those European locations where important works of Polish culture were produced throughout the nineteenth century.

The front page of Mickiewicz's Konrad Wallenrod, 1828. Photo: Polona.pl

St. Petersburg – Adam Mickiewicz, Konrad Wallenrod

Published in 1828, the poem was approved by censors in St. Petersburg yet soon became what is probably the most 'dangerous' book in the history of Polish literature. The main character, who for patriotic reasons stealthily infiltrates the nation’s enemies in order to ultimately take revenge against them, was a source of controversy from the very beginning. Such an attitude was then called 'Wallenrodism', and during the November Uprising young Poles were fighting with verses from Konrad Wallenrod on their lips.

Portrait of Adam Mickiewicz on the Ayu-Dag Cliff by Walenty Wańkowicz, 1827-1828. Source: public domain

Crimea – Adam Mickiewicz, Crimean Sonnets

During his forced stay in Russia, Mickiewicz went on a trip to the Crimea. The local landscapes and oriental culture made a huge impression on him, and the series of 18 sonnets inspired by the trip became a landmark work of Polish Romanticism. Written in 1825-1826, his Sonety krymskie [Crimean Sonnets] were published in Moscow in 1826.

Postcard showing a scene from Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady, post 1906. Photo: Polona.pl

Dresden - Adam Mickiewicz, Forefathers' Eve, Part III

Mickiewicz wrote the third part of his great work Dziady [Forefathers’ Eve] in Dresden shortly after the fall of the November Uprising, in which he did not take part. Here, Mickiewicz combined political, historical, and metaphysical issues into a single piece. In Part III, Mickiewicz's messianism made itself heard for the first time: the destruction of the Polish state was likened to the passion of Christ, and the future 'resurrection' of the nation was to have a purging influence on the world. The work is widely recognized as a masterpiece of Polish romantic drama.

Postcard from Słowacki’s Kordian. Photo: Polona.pl

Geneva – Juliusz Słowacki, Kordian

Juliusz Słowacki’s romantic drama Kordian can be seen as a polemic with Mickiewicz’s Dziady [Forefathers’ Eve]. It was written in Geneva in 1833, and published anonymously in Paris the next year. Whilst in Geneva Słowacki also went on to write also his drama Balladyna (published in Paris in 1839).

Apotheosis of Słowacki by Konstanty Górski, ante 1913. Photo: Polona.pl

Mycenae – Juliusz Słowacki, Agamemnon’s Grave

In 1836-1837, Słowacki went on a trip to the east, the objective of the journey being Jerusalem. During the trip he wrote the bulk of his unfinished epic poem 'Travel to the Holy Land from Naples'. Also, his short poem 'Agamemnon's Grave', learned by school children in Poland today, was written during this trip, inspired by his visit to the ancient Greek town of Mycenae.

Illustration for Pan Tadeusz by Franciszek Kostrzewski. Photo: Wikimedia

Paris – Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz

The Polish national epic, Pan Tadeusz, was published in Paris in 1834. In the monumental poem, Mickiewicz revisited the places where he had grown up and invoked the image of what Polish noble-manor life had been like on the eve of the country’s loss of independence.

C.K. Norwid in Paris, a photograph from 1861. Photo: Wikimedia

Paris – Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Vademecum

Norwid, the quintessential émigré author of Polish literature, ultimately spent 42 years in emigration. He left Poland in 1842, at the age of 21, and never returned to the country, dying in Paris in 1883. He never gained recognition in his lifetime, and living in exile was one of the continual themes of his very existential oeuvre. His magnum opus, a book of 100 poems called Vademecum, was never published during his lifetime. While Norwid spent most of his life in France, some of his works, like the anthem ‘My Little Song II – Oh Lord I Grieve’ were written on the other side of the Atlantic, in America, where Norwid also tried his luck as an emigrant – though without success.

Portrait of Chopin by Maria Wodzińska, 1835. Photo: Wikimedia

Paris – Fryderyk Chopin, Revolutionary Étude

A sizeable share of Fryderyk Chopin's works were written in Paris, where the 20-year-old composer came after the outbreak of the November Uprising (although some of his pieces were also composed elsewhere, such as the 'Preludes', written on Majorca). The history of the Étude in C Minor – known as the 'Revolutionary Étude' – is closely connected with the November Uprising. The composer wrote it after learning about the Russian’s capture of Warsaw and the fall of the uprising.

Sheet music for Dąbrowski's mazurka, 1905. Photo: Polona.pl

Reggio nell’Emilia – Józef Wybicki, Dąbrowski's Mazurka

The song Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła (Poland is not yet lost), composed and first performed in Reggio nell’Emilia in 1797, was sung by the soldiers of the Polish legions formed in northern Italy under the Polish General Dąbrowski, meant to fight for Napoleon. Dąbrowski and Wybicki (the author of the song’s lyrics) believed that only by fighting abroad and supporting the struggle for freedom of other nations could the Poles eventually win their own independence. The song eventually became the Polish national anthem.

Postcard showing a scene from Krasiński’s Irydion, 1910-1925. Photo: Polona.pl

Vienna – Zygmunt Krasiński, Iridion

Zygmunt Krasiński, who came from a rich aristocratic family, left Poland in 1829 and lived abroad from then on, mainly in Italy and France. He spent nearly 30 years travelling. He created his most important works – Nieboska komedia [Undivine Comedy] (1835) and Irydion – abroad. The latter was written in Vienna in 1835 and anonymously published in Paris in 1836. The drama, set in ancient Rome, is sometimes referred to as a 'Roman drama about a Polish uprising'.

Polish culture abroad

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Fryderyk Chopin

Adam Mickiewicz

Cyprian Kamil Norwid

Zygmunt Krasiński

Adam Mickiewicz

Juliusz Słowacki

Mazurek Dąbrowskiego

Juliusz Słowacki