January 1st – The birthday of Sándor Petőfi, the most famous Hungarian poet

If you ask Hungarian kids about their favorit poet, they’ll probably say Petőfi and even recite a poem. Sándor Petőfi (born January 1^st, 1823, Kiskőrös, Hungary – died probably July 31^st, 1849, Segesvár, Transylvania) is one of the greatest Hungarian poets and a revolutionary who embodied the Hungarian desire for freedom.

Out of all Hungarian poets and writers, probably Petőfi’s biography is the most widely known. He was one of the leader figures in the revolution of 1848-49 and became part of national legendry as a martyr. He was The Poet. His life is just as much cultic as his poetry.

Petőfi had an eventful youth; he studied at several different schools, joined a group of strolling players for some time, and enlisted as a private soldier, but he was soon dismissed from the army due to his poor health. As a schoolboy, he displayed a keen interest in the stage and in literature, and his first poem was published in 1842. In 1844, on the recommendation of Mihály Vörösmarty, the leading Hungarian poet, he became an assistant editor of the literary periodical Pesti Divatlap. His first volume of poetry, Versek, appeared in the same year and made him famous at once, though the tone of his poems scandalized many.

In 1846, he met Júlia Szendrey in Transylvania. They married the next year, despite the opposition of her father, and spent their honeymoon at the castle of Count Sándor Teleki, the only aristocrat among Petőfi’s friends. Their only son Zoltán was born on 15 December 1848. Júlia was the one who inspired his best love poems.

Petőfi became possessed by thoughts of a revolution. Among the various young leaders of the revolution, called Márciusi Ifjak (Youths of March), Petőfi played a major role in starting the revolution in Pest. He joined the Hungarian Revolutionary Army and fought under the Polish Liberal General Józef Bem in the Transylvanian army. The army was initially successful against Habsburg troops, but after Tsar Nicholas I of Russia intervened to support the Habsburgs, they were defeated. Petőfi was last seen alive in the Battle of Segesvár on 31 July 1849.

As britannica.com puts it, Petőfi’s poetry is characterized by realism, humour, and descriptive power and imbued with a peculiar vigour. He introduced a direct, unpretentious style and a clear, unornamented construction adapted from national folk songs. This simplicity was the more arresting as it was used to reveal subtle emotions and political or philosophical ideas. Of his epic poems the János vitéz (1845), an entrancing fairy tale, is the most popular. Petőfi’s popularity was never diminished in Hungary.