Vladimir Vidrić (April 20, 1875 – September 29, 1909) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

n poet, and is considered one of the major figures of Croatian

secessionist Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...

poetry.

Life

Vidrić was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, to an affluent family of

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, and ...

n origin. He was one of the leaders of the demonstrators who burned the Hungarian flag on the occasion of the emperor Franz Joseph's visit to Zagreb in 1895. He studied law in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

and

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

. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1903, he became a lawyer rather than pursuing an academic career. He began writing poems in high school, and was first recognized for his poem ''Boni mores'', published in

Vienac ''Vijenac'' (English: '' The Wreath'') is a biweekly magazine for literature, art and science, established in December 1993 and published by ''Matica hrvatska'', the central national cultural institution in Croatia. Historical background The ...

in 1897. Before his premature death, he wrote only about 40 poems, most of which he self-published in his 1907 collection with the simple title ''Pjesme'' (Poems). In addition to his affiliations with controversial progressive political circles, Vidrić was known for his adventurous life, great intelligence, and prodigious memory. He was an outstanding student, and spent entire evenings reciting memorized poetry to his amazed friends. He died under obscure circumstances in the mental hospital in the

suburb of

Vrapče Vrapče () is a neighborhood of western Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near t ...

Poetry

As a rule, Vidrić's poetic atmospheres develop from a concrete scene. The poet is lost or hidden in a

mythological Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

character. His images of a barbaric, classical and mythological world are very personal. He was an

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

with a strong visual imagination. His best poems, such as ''Jutro'' (Morning), ''Dva pejzaža'' (Two landscapes), ''Adieu'', ''Ex Pannonia'', ''Dva levita'' (Two Levites), include some of the best verses ever written in Croatian. Some of his contemporaries, such as Matoš, accused him of technical imperfections, wrong accents in

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

s, and raw style. However, Vidrić was simply before his time, choosing to base his

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

on main accents rather than feet. The Croatian literary historian

Ivo Frangeš Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...

wrote, "Vidrić's world feels like a fragment of an ancient vase, where the incomplete nature of the preserved scene is used to strengthen the effect. It is a miniature world, painfully clear, with a miraculous third dimension that goes far beyond our everyday ideas of width and depth."

Sources

Vidrić, Vladimir

Vladimir Vidrić

External links

Translated works by Vladimir Vidrić
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidric, Vladimir 1875 births 1909 deaths Writers from Zagreb People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Croatian male poets Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery 19th-century Croatian poets 20th-century Croatian poets 19th-century male writers 20th-century male writers Croatian people of Slovenian descent