HOLLY, JÁN. - Slovak priest and poet, b. 24 March 1785 in Borský Sv. Mikuláš, d. 14 Apr. 1849 in Dobrá Voda.
H. is the first Slovak national poet, in the fullest sense of the term. He belongs to the school of Bernolák. His poetry, full of Romantic spirit, is still formally dependent on classical Latin literature. He employs classical metrical prosody and draws especially upon the Aeneid for his epic-heroic poems.
His work may be divided into three groups: translations of the Latin and Greek classics, Eneida Wirgiliova (Trnava 1828); heroic poems inspired by national history: Swatopluk, heroic poem in 12 cantos (Trnava 1833); Släm, heroic poem in 12 cantos (ibid. 1833); Cirillo-Metodiada, heroic poem in 6 cantos (Budin 1835). Among his lyric poetry, especially his religious verse, his most important work is Katolicki Spewnik (ibid. 1842).
His spiritual songs were set to music and enjoyed wide circulation.