Nevertheless Thomas Padura, another of the young Polish school, chose
even the dialect of the Ruthenian peasantry for his songs. Another
Polish poet, who has selected the Ukraine for the theatre of most of
his tales, is Michael Czaykowski; he too is considered as standing at
the head of the novel writers of his country. His legends of the
Kozaks[86], his tales, _Wernyhora_[87], _Kirdzali_, the Hetman of the
Ukraine[88], etc. manifest a more than common talent.
To the poetical literature of the Polish emigrants belong further the
works of A. Gorecki, Garczinski, J. Slawacki, but, above all, of count
Ignatius Krasinski; not the same individual who wrote a history of the
Reformation in Poland in the English language[89]. He is by many of
his countrymen considered as their greatest living poet. Most of his
productions are enveloped in a certain mystical atmosphere, which
renders a commentary necessary in order to understand them. Two
dramatic poems, one called, in contrast to Dante, "The Undivine
Comedy;" the other, "Irydion," an illustration of Schiller's stern
apothegm, that "the history of the world is the judgment of the
world;" [90] are regarded as his most powerful productions[91].
Meanwhile this department of literature, in Poland itself, has taken,
in some of its branches, the same strictly national direction which
characterizes the Russian and Bohemian tendencies of modern times.
Pages:
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442