KRASINSKI, ZYGMUNT, HRABIA

( (Count), ) born Feb. 19, 1812, Paris, France died Feb. 23, 1859, Paris in full Napoleon Stanislaw Adam Ludwik Zygmunt Krasinski poet and dramatist, with Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Slowacki a member of Poland's triad of Romantic messianic poets. The son of a leading aristocratic family, Krasinski studied law at Warsaw University before taking up studies in Geneva in 1829. He lived most of his life abroad and published his work anonymously. The conflict of loyalty arising from his father's support of Russian imperialism and the son's desire for Poland's independence occupies a central position in the poet's thought. Krasinski's reputation rests primarily on two tragic dramas. In Nieboska komedia (1835; The Undivine Comedy) he presents a future struggle between the masses and the privileged that represents the first literary expression of class war. In his second important play, Irydion (1836), the story of a Greek who seeks vengeance on imperial Rome, Krasinski denies the validity of hatred as a source of righteous action. Krasinski's best-known poem, Przedswit (1843; The Moment Before Dawn), was an inspiration to his countrymen in trying times. It pictures Poland's partition as a sacrifice for the sins of the entire world but optimistically predicts Poland's resurrection and emergence as a world leader because of its sacrifice.