Ján Botto (January 27, 1829,

Vyšný Skálnik Vyšný Skálnik ( hu, Felsősziklás) is a village and municipality in the Rimavská Sobota District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia. Now more or less tourist village with a water reservoir, constructed in the 1970s and now ...

– April 28, 1881,

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mo ...

) was a Slovak poet, writer of the Štúr generation and co-founder of the first Slovak gymnasium in

Revúca Revúca (; formerly ''Veľká Revúca'' in Slovak; german: Groß-Rauschenbach; hu, Nagyrőce) is a town in Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia. Revúca is the seat of Revúca District. Etymology The name is of Slovak origin and was initially t ...

. Born into a family of farmers, he began to attend Latin Gymnasium at

Ožďany Ožďany ( hu, Osgyán) is a village and municipality in the Rimavská Sobota District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia. Local high school played an important role in the Slovak history, some important persons of Slovak literary ...

and from 1843 the Evangelical

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the th ...

Levoča Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча) is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the wor ...

, where he wrote his first literary works. From 1853 he had been engaged as a

land surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

in different towns throughout Slovakia,

Zvolen Zvolen (; hu, Zólyom; german: Altsohl) is a town in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina rivers, close to Banská Bystrica. It is surrounded by Poľana mountain from the East, by Kremnické vrchy from the West an ...

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

and

Banská Štiavnica Banská Štiavnica (; german: Schemnitz; hu, Selmecbánya (Selmec), ) is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as the Štiavnica Mountain ...

. In 1861 he wrote one of his most important ballads, Smrť Jánošíkova /Death of Jánošík/. He was the youngest member of writers, poets and politicians in the generation of

Ľudovít Štúr Ľudovít Velislav Štúr (; hu, Stur Lajos; 28 October 1815 – 12 January 1856), known in his era as Ludevít Štúr, (pen names : B. Dunajský, Bedlivý Ludorob, Boleslav Záhorský, Brat Slovenska, Ein Slave, Ein ungarischer Slave, Karl Wi ...

. Together with

Samo Chalupka Samo Chalupka (27 February 1812, Horná Lehota, Brezno District – 19 May 1883, Horná Lehota) was a Slovak Lutheran priest and romantic poet. Life Samo Chalupka was a younger brother of Ján Chalupka, another Slovak writer. Samo stu ...

Andrej Sládkovič Andrej Sládkovič (born as Andrej Braxatoris, pseudonyms Andrej Braxatoris-Sládkovič, Andrej Sládkovič, Ondřej Krasislav Sládkovič; 31 March 1820 – 20 April 1872) was a Slovak poet, critic, publicist, translator and Lutheran priest. L ...

and

Janko Kráľ Janko Kráľ ( hu, Král János; 24 April 1822 in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš (now Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia) – 23 May 1876 in Zlaté Moravce) was one of the most significant and most radical Slovak romantic poets of the Ľudovít Š ...

he is one of the most important poets of Slovak

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. He died of heart failure at 28. April 1881 in Banská Bystrica. A commemorative plaque, statue and a museum dedicated to his memory are located in

. Poems written by Ján Botto often took inspiration from common Slovak legends and folk tales. An example of which is the poe
Pani"
( sk, Lady of Čachtice) which recounts the bloody story of the Hungarian countess

Elizabeth Báthory Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed ( hu, Báthori Erzsébet, ; sk, Alžbeta Bátoriová; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the family of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of ...

Notable works

*''Pieseň Jánošíkova'' (1846, Jánošík's Song) *''Piesne Slovenské'' (1846, Slovak Songs) *''Smrť Jánošíkova'' (1862, The Death of Jánošík) *''Báj Turca'' (1867, Myth of a Turk) *''Žltá Ľalija''Old Slovak spelling. The contemporary spelling is Ľalia ( sk, Lily) (1879, Yellow Lily) *''Piesne vojenské'' (1873, Songs of War) *''Čachtická pani'' (Lady of Čachtice)

References

* http://www.osobnosti.sk/index.php?os=zivotopis&ID=1708 * http://zlatyfond.sme.sk/autor/49/Jan-Botto * http://www.pre-slovensko.sk/literarne-okienko/jan-botto.php * https://web.archive.org/web/20110507041507/http://www.mladezsns.sk/slovensko/narodni-velikani/jan-botto/ * http://www.nvocsp.org/files/janbotto.pdf

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botto, Jan Slovak poets 1829 births 1881 deaths