"O Vrba" is a

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

written in 1832 and later corrected by the Slovene

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 ...

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (2 or 3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

, who is considered the

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. It was published in 1834 in the fourth volume of the almanac ''

Krajnska čbelica ''The Carniolan Bee'' ( sl, Krajnska čbelica) was the first almanac of poetry in Slovene. The first volume was published on 30 April 1830, with subsequent volumes published in 1831, 1832, 1834 and 1848. Its editor was Miha Kastelic, whereas the ...

'' (Carniolan Bee). It is the introductory exposition of a

cycle Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...

of six sonnets, titled the ''

Sonnets of Misfortune A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credi ...

'' ( sl, Sonetje nesreče). The sonnet is dedicated to the Prešeren's home village of

Vrba Vrba ("willow" in several Slavic languages) may refer to: Places Austria * Velden am Wörther See ( sl, Vrba na Koroškem, link=no) Bosnia and Herzegovina * Vrba (Glamoč), Bosnia and Herzegovina * Vrba (Gacko), Bosnia and Herzegovina Mon ...

, expressing a sense of general melancholy over the lost idyll of the rural environment. According to contemporary Slovene literary critics, especially Marija Pirjevec, Boris Paternu and

Janko Kos Janko Kos (born 9 March 1931) is a Slovenian literary historian, theoretician, and critic. He was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the son of the painter and sculptor Tine Kos. His father was a liberal and freet ...

, the meaning of the sonnet is centered on the problem of insecurity and unhappiness of a free

subject Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...

detached from the

theocentric Theocentricism is the belief that God is the central aspect to existence, as opposed to anthropocentrism and existentialism. In this view, meaning and value of actions done to people or the environment are attributed to God. The tenets of theocent ...

world view. The sonnet form follows the rules abstracted by

August Wilhelm Schlegel August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...

from the sonnets of

Petrarch 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 w ...

. In the 20th century, several musical interpretations of the poem were created, the most known of them probably being a version by the Slovene

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

musician

Vlado Kreslin Vlado Kreslin (born 29 November 1953) is a Slovenian singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. Life and work Kreslin was born in the village of Beltinci in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. He began his musical caree ...

References

External links

France Prešeren: Poems: O, Vrba, happy village
Preseren.net. English translation by Alasdair Mackinnon. {{France Prešeren Sonnets Poetry by France Prešeren 1832 poems