HOLLY, JAN. – Priest and Slovak poet, b. 24 March 1785 at Borský Sv. Mikuláš, d. 14 April 1849 at Dobrá Voda.
H. is the first national poet of the Slovaks in the fullest sense of the term. He belongs to the Bernolák school. His poetry, rich in Romantic spirit, still depends formally on classical Latin literature. He employs classical metrical prosody and draws especially on the Aeneid for his epic-heroic poems.
His work may be divided into three groups: translations of Latin and Greek classics (e.g. Eneida Wirgiliova, Trnava 1828); heroic poems inspired by national history: Swatopluk, an epic poem in 12 cantos (Trnava 1833); Slávo, an epic poem in 12 cantos (ibid. 1833); Cirillo-Metodiada, an epic poem in 6 cantos (Budin 1835); and in his lyric poetry, especially religious, his most important work is Katolicki Spewnik (ibid. 1842).
His spiritual songs were set to music and widely circulated.