Wincenty Pol | |
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 Portrait of Wincenty Pol byJuliusz Kossak | |
| Born | (1807-04-20)20 April 1807 Lublin, Kingdom of Galicia |
| Died | 2 December 1872(1872-12-02) (aged 65) |
| Occupation | poet, geographer |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Education | Lviv University |
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Wincenty Pol (German:Vinzenz Xaver Ferrarius Poll;[1] 20 April 1807 – 2 December 1872)[2] was a Polish poet andgeographer.
Pol was born inLublin (then inGalicia), to Franz Pohl (or Poll), a German in theAustrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a French family living in Poland. Pol fought in the Polish army in theNovember 1830 Uprising and participated in the1848 revolution. In spite of his mixed family background, he considered himself a Pole, so much so that he changed his surname to Pol.
He was interned inKönigsberg after the fall of theNovember Uprising inRussian partition of Poland.[3] He enrolled at the University but soon became embroiled in controversy, for his anti-Tsarist agitation. While Pol was defended by German speaking professors,Peter von Bohlen andFriedrich Wilhelm Schubert, he left Prussia and continued his exile in France. While in exile Pol worked on his first poems in tribute to the heroism of the insurgents, issued later in the set of"Songs of Janusz".[4]
Although he had no formal education in geography, during his travels in Polish lands he wrote several books on this subject, and in 1849 was appointed professor at theJagiellonian University inKraków.
He wrote a fine descriptive work,Obrazy z życia i podróży (Pictures of Life and Travel), and also a poemPieśń o ziemi naszej (Song of our Land). In 1855 he publishedMohort, a poem relating to the times ofStanisław August Poniatowski. His earlierSongs of Janusz (1836) inspiredFrédéric Chopin to writea number of Polish songs, but only one survives.
Pol was probably first to introduce into Polish literature the term"Kresy" to describe the territories lying near the eastern frontiers of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[citation needed]
He died in Kraków. Pol was interred in Kraków's historicSkałka Church, a mini-pantheon of Polish scholars, writers and artists, especially from the Kraków area.
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