Poetry
Poezije
Not translated into English
Dragotin Kette · 1900
Synopsis
The collection gathers, after his death, the verses of a poet of twenty-three. Many are sonnets, grouped in cycles titled Souvenirs and Uramisten, and ghazals in varied forms. A large part sings of a young woman from Novo mesto, loved without return. Other pieces note a square in a few touches, or, in eight poems written during his military service, the San Carlo pier in Trieste and the sea.
Context
The collection appeared in 1900 from Lavoslav Schwentner, edited and prefaced by Anton Aškerc, who had at first refused these poems; Ivan Cankar and Oton Župančič reproached him for his preface and his retouchings, and the quarrel concerned the very criteria of poetry. A second edition appeared in 1907. The poet drew on Slovene folk songs, on Goethe, Heine and Prešeren, and knew Verlaine and Maeterlinck through his friends without following them. He is regarded, with Murn, Cankar and Župančič, as one of the founders of Slovene modernity.
Who it is for
Poems in fixed forms, sonnets and ghazals, of great distinction; there is no French translation.
Prizes and reception
The national biography holds his sonnets, together with those of Prešeren, to be the most accomplished in the Slovene language.