Poetry
The Forest of Anykščiai
Anykščių šilelis
Antanas Baranauskas · 1861
Synopsis
The poet returns to the hills of Anykščiai, where the pine wood of old has been felled. He brings back to life its whole vanished little world, the trees, the sounds and the songs, and moves, like a folk song, from joy to melancholy. The memory of the forest becomes that of a time when men and woods lived in harmony, and the story of the felled pine wood gradually merges with the fate of the country, held under Russian domination.
Context
The poem was written during the summer holidays of 1858 and 1859, when the author was training for the priesthood; according to the journal Lituanus, he wanted to answer a professor who held Lithuanian to be unsuited to poetry. Laurynas Ivinskis published it in his calendars, and critics recognise in it the influence of Mickiewicz. It first appeared in English in 1956; ecocriticism now reads it as the hymn of a vanished forest.
Who it is for
A short poem, lyrical and descriptive; it exists in English, but no French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
His best-known poem, which became a landmark of Lithuanian poetry and has been translated into many languages.
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