KRAŚINSKI, Zygmunt. - Polish poet, b. in Paris on 18 Feb. 1812, d. there on 23 Feb. 1859, was one of the three greatest Romantics of his nation. His life was unhappy from early youth, torn by an inner struggle between filial devotion and patriotic feeling: his father, a Napoleonic general who had entered Russian service, was a legitimist; Z. on the other hand deeply suffered all the misfortunes caused to Poland by Tsarist oppression. At seventeen he was forced to leave Warsaw because of the hostility of his university companions; he went abroad, and his father would not permit him to return home when the 1830 insurrection broke out.
The cost to the young man of renouncing action is expressed in a letter in which he invokes the pity of Christ, the only one who can understand him. Yet he did not rebel; he lived in exile in France, Germany, and Italy. He married, against his inflexible father’s will, Isabella Branicka, while his heart was filled with love for Delfina Potocka, and this further saddened his life, undermined as it was by fragile health. The work of K., which he published under the pseudonym of “anonymous poet of Poland,” reflects his tragic inner experiences in the conflict between his feelings as a Christian and as a Pole. At a time when national aspirations were seething with hatred and bloody strife, and everywhere lofty ends contrasted with brutal means which K. abhorred, he painfully sought his path, rising from the desolation of darkness to the light of faith and love. In *Nie-Boska Komedia* he describes with prophetic spirit the social struggles then only beginning to take shape; in *Irydion* the Greek hater of Rome, who has vainly conspired to destroy its power, abandons his soul to the prince of darkness so that he may grant him to see it one day in ruin; when, after six centuries, he awakens, he understands that not hatred but the love of the Christians of the catacombs, living by prayer and martyrdom, has triumphed over that power which seemed invincible; through the intercession of a Christian virgin his soul too will be saved, and Irydion will be reborn in Poland. A light of hope for a world oppressed by sorrow shines in *Przedstawienie* (“The Dawn”), a poem among the most perfect in Polish literature, in *Trzy myśli H. Ligenzy* (“Three Thoughts of E. Ligenza”), in *Psalmy przyszłości* (“Psalms of the Future”), and generally in his lyrics. K.’s work is vast and includes other early poems and novels. Posthumously appeared the *Niedokończony poemat* (“Unfinished Poem”); and likewise the *Listy* (“Letters”), of great beauty. K.’s writings, at once dramatic, lyric, and symbolic, have a strong philosophical content inspired by the Hegelian Cieszkowski, who explained the history of humanity in a grand commentary on the *Pater*.