Milan Rakić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Милан Ракић; 18 September 1876 – 30 June 1938) was a Serbian poet-diplomat and academic. He focused on dodecasyllable and hendecasyllable verse, which allowed him to achieve beautiful

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 r ...

and

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

in his poems. He was quite a perfectionist and therefore only published three collections of poems (1903, 1912, 1924). He wrote largely about death and non-existence, keeping the tone sceptical and ironic. Some of his most well-known poems are ''An Honest Song'' (Iskrena pesma), ''A Desperate Song'' (Očajna pesma), '' Jefimija'', '' Simonida'' and ''At Gazi-Mestan'' (Na Gazi-Mestanu). He was a member of the Serbian Royal Academy (1934).

Biography

Early life

Rakić was born on 18 September 1876 in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

to father Mita and mother Ana (née Milićević). His father, educated abroad, was Serbia's Minister of Finance (1888) and his mother was the daughter of Serbian writer Milan Milićević. He finished elementary school (grade school) and high school (gymnasium) in

. He completed law school in Paris. It was in Paris that he, like Jovan Dučić, came under the influence of French Symbolist poets. They both had learned to admire French culture and had dreamed of a better world after the war. After returning to Belgrade from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

he became a diplomat (also like Dučić) for the Serbian (and later Yugoslav) government and remained in that job until nearly his death, representing the country abroad. His first diplomatic posting was

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

in Ottoman Macedonia during the turbulent time of the Macedonian Struggle where Serbs, Turks, schismatic Exarchists and their Komitaji, Greek ''Andart'' cheta groups, and Albanian Kachaks all vied for supremacy.

Personal life

His sister Ljubica was married to Milan Grol; and his wife Milica was the daughter of Ljubomir Kovačević, a distinguished Serbian historian and politician.

Death

He died prematurely in 1938 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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

after a surgical operation. He is interred in the Belgrade New Cemetery.International graves
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Works

* ''Collection of Poems'', 1903 * ''Collection of Poems'', 1912 * ''Collection of Poems'', 1924

References

Sources

* Jovan Skerlić, ''Istorija nove srpske književnosti'' (Belgrade, 1914 and 1921), pp. 458–60.

External links

*
Article on Serbian Poetry

Translated works by Milan Rakić
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rakic, Milan 1876 births 1938 deaths Writers from Belgrade 20th-century Serbian people Serbian male poets Diplomats from Belgrade People from the Principality of Serbia People from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery