Antonín Sova

Sova, Antonín 

Born Feb. 26, 1864, in Pacov; died there Aug. 16,1928. Czech poet.

Sova was one of the authors of the Manifesto of the Czech Art Nouveau, which attacked contemporary society from the standpoint of individual rebellion. The tragic life of the people and of the individual in the context of Austro-Hungarian bourgeois society was reflected in the collections Realistic Stanzas (1890) and Sympathy and Resistance (1894). In the collections The Valley of the New Kingdom (1900), Lyrics of Love and Life (1907), and The Harvest (1913), Sova expressed an abstract romantic faith in a harmonious and beautiful future. Sova’s works of the 1920’s, including The Bleeding Brotherhood (1920), Springtime of a Poet (1921), and An Audacious Love (1927), reflected his contradictory social viewpoints. Late in life, Sova was an advocate of Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship.

A master of the nature lyric, Sova was influenced by symbolism and impressionism. He introduced free verse into Czech poetry.

WORKS

Spisy, vols. 1–20. Prague, 1936–38.
Básné. Prague, 1953.
In Russian translation:
In Antologiia cheshskoi poezii, vol. 2. Moscow, 1959.

REFERENCES

Ocherki istorii cheshskoi literatury XIX-XX vv. Moscow, 1963.
Čeští spisovatolé z přelomu 19 a 20 století. Prague, 1972.