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

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

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

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, to an affluent family of

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

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 ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. 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 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.

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 genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

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 visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

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 Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

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 r ...

on main accents rather than

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

. The Croatian literary historian Ivo Frangeš 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 Croatian male writers 20th-century Croatian male writers Croatian people of Slovenian descent Poets from Austria-Hungary