Sándor Kisfaludy (27 September 1772 – 28 October 1844) was a Hungarian lyric

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, ''Himfy's Loves'' his chief work, was less distinguished as a dramatist. He is considered to be the first

romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

from Hungary. He was the brother of

Károly Kisfaludy Károly Kisfaludy (5 February 1788 – 21 November 1830) was a Hungarian dramatist and artist, brother of Sándor Kisfaludy. He was the founder of the national drama. Early life The youngest of eight children, his mother died in childbirth, an ...

. He has been set to music by

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...

Biography

He was born in a

Hungarian noble The Hungarian nobility consisted of a privileged group of individuals, most of whom owned landed property, in the Kingdom of Hungary. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high- ...

family in the town of

Sümeg Sümeg (german: Schimeck) is a town in Veszprém county, Hungary. Sümeg is mostly known for Sümeg Castle. It is north of Lake Balaton. Twin towns – sister cities Sümeg is twinned with: * Aichtal, Germany * Sovata Sovata (; hu, Szov� ...

, in

Zala county Zala ( hu, Zala megye, ; ; ) is an administrative county (comitatus or ''megye'') in south-western Hungary. It is named after the Zala River. It shares borders with Croatia ( Koprivnica–Križevci and Međimurje Counties) and Slovenia (Lendava ...

. His father was Mihály Kisfaludy (1743–1825), landowner and chief magistrate (''főszolgabíró''), and his mother was the noble lady Anna Sándorffy (1755–1788). He first started building a career as a military officer. He served in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as an officer in the imperial army, and then took part in the war against

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, defending

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. In June

1796 Events January–March * January 16 – The first Dutch (and general) elections are held for the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic. (The next Dutch general elections are held in 1888.) * February 1 – The capital ...

, during the siege of the

Sforza Castle The Castello Sforzesco (Italian for "Sforza's Castle") is a medieval fortification located in Milan, northern Italy. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later reno ...

in Milan, he was taken prisoner of war and taken to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where he was transported to

Draguignan Draguignan (; oc, Draguinhan) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of ...

. He wrote about the days he spent here and his acquaintance with Julie-Caroline d'Esclapon in his diary: "''My French Captivity''". It was thanks to the educated girl that he began to sing under the influence of

Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

and the French lyric. He was released by a prisoner exchange and then returned to service, but after completing his military service in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, he was demobilized from the army. His passionate love life is inseparable from his literary work. Upon returning home, he burst into Hungarian literature and public consciousness with his poems entitled Himfy's Loves, which he wrote under a pseudonym. At the age of 32-35, he was already the celebrated poet of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

. He is the founder of Hungarian literary romanticism, and he made a lasting impression mainly with his love lyrics. The song structure he created is called the Himfy stanza in the verstan. According to István Toldy, with the song cycle Himfy's Loves, which is considered his masterpiece, he "introduced a significant turn in Hungarian literary taste" and "gained civil rights for love poetry, which until then had been subject to the censorship of ecclesiastical and secular forums". His first wife was Róza Szegedy de Mezőszeged (Kám, Vas county, 6th April 1774 – Sümeg, Zala county, 18th May 1832), who he considered was his most important

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

of inspiration. She was the daughter of the noble man Ignác Szegedy de Mezőszeged (1736-1796), royal counselor, vice-ispán of the Vas county (''alispán of Vas''), landowner and the noble lady Katalin Rosty de Barkócz (1753-1787), who hailed from the ancient House of Rosty de Barkócz.

References

Hungarian male poets 1772 births 1844 deaths 19th-century Hungarian poets 19th-century Hungarian male writers Sandor {{Hungary-poet-stub