He is, however, not very
productive; a striking peculiarity of Slavic poets.
The principal poets of the modern romantic school in Poland, of which
Mickiewicz must be considered the founder, are the following:
A.E. Odyniec and Julian Korssak, both chiefly known by happy
translations from the English; but also not without creative power of
their own. Anton Malczeski is the author of a poetical tale,
_Maria_,[85] perhaps the most popular production of the Polish
literature. It is a touching family legend, traditional in the noble
house of Potocki in Volhynia; but transposed by Malczeski to the
Ukraine, and connected in that way with graphic descriptions of this
latter country. Malczeski lived a life of wild adventures; and died
young, not yet 34 years old, in 1826.
The Ukraine appears to be, on the whole, one of the favourite theatres
for the romantic school of Polish poets. Zaleski, Gosczynski,
Grabowski, all of them poets of more than ordinary talents, give us
pictures of this country, alternately sweet and rough, wild and
romantic. There must necessarily be some mixture of attractive and
repulsive elements here even for native poets; for the common people
are Russians, and hate the Polish nobility as their oppressors.
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