Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński (c. 1550 – c. 1581) was an influential Polish poet of the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

who wrote in both Polish and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. He was a pioneer of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and the greatest representative of the metaphysical movement of the era in Poland. His love poems are often classed as mannerist. Jan Błoński has called Sęp Szarzyński a "mystical poet full of

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

", and Wiktor Weintraub has called him "the most outstanding poet of the times of Jan Kochanowski".Wiktor Weintraub, ''Od Reja do Boya'' (From ikołajRej to adeuszBoy[-Żeleński">Żeleński.html" ;"title="adeuszBoy[-Żeleński">adeuszBoy[-Żeleński, Warsaw, 1977, pp. 45-47. The poet's status in the history of Polish literature is controversial.

Life

Little is known about Sęp Szarzyński's personal life. He was born in Zimna Woda near Lwów, the eldest of three sons, and educated at the universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig. His stay in Germany brought him close to Protestantism but he later became an ardent Roman Catholicism, Catholic and his religious devotion is reflected in his poems. He probably died in Wolica, Przeworsk County, Wolica in 1581 at the age of 31. He amasses all his writings in handwriting. After his death, Sęp Szarzyński's verse was collected by his brother Jakub and published under the title ''Rytmy abo wiersze polskie'' in 1601.

Works

Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński's work is often called "the sunset of the Polish

". His poems introduced the

to Polish literature. The most important Szarzyński's poems are probably his

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s. They are written according to the French model of the form. They were translated into English by Richard Sokoloski. The most important is perhaps the sonnet ''On the War We Wage Against Satan, the World, and the Body'' was translated into English by Michael J. Mikoś.Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, Sonnet IV.
/ref> Szarzyński made paraphrases of some Psalms, too.

Sources

*Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński: ''Rytmy polskie'' (Ad Oculos, 2004)

References

External links

Collected works (Polish)
1550s births 1580s deaths Polish male poets Neo-Latin poets {{Poland-poet-stub