Ferenc Kölcsey was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current

Liberalism and radicalism in Hungary

This article gives an overview of liberalism and radicalism in Hungary. It is limited to liberal and radical parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme...

 inside the Habsburg Empire. He wrote the national anthem of Hungary in 1823.

Biography

Kölcsey was born in Sződemeter, Hungary (now Săuca, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

). He was orphaned at an early age and handicapped by the loss of an eye to smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

. At age fifteen, he made the acquaintance of Ferenc Kazinczy

Ferenc Kazinczy

Ferenc Kazinczy was a Hungarian author, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Magyar language and literature at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century...

 and adopted his linguistic reforms. In 1809 Kölcsey went to Pest

Pest (city)

Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...

 and became a notary to the Royal

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 board. He was disenchanted with the office, and, while present in the Cseke in Szatmár

Szatmár

Szatmár is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and north-eastern Hungary, south of the river Tisza...

, he devoted his time to aesthetical study, poetry, criticism, and the defense of Kazinczy's theories.

Kölcsey's early metrical pieces contributed to the Transylvanian Museum did not attract much attention, while his severe criticisms of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz

Mihály Csokonai Vitéz

Mihály Csokonai Vitéz was a Hungarian poet.Having been educated in Debrecen, where he was born, Csokonai was appointed while still very young to the professorship of poetry there...

, János Kis

János Kis

János Kis is a Hungarian philosopher and political scientist.Kis was born in Budapest, Hungary. He graduated from Philosophy at the Eötvös Loránd University in 1967. Kis was inspired by the ideas of György Lukács, and became marxist in the 1960's. He joined the Hungarian Communist Party too...

, and especially Dániel Berzsenyi

Dániel Berzsenyi

Dániel Berzsenyi - February 24, 1836 in Nikla) was a Hungarian poet.Berzsenyi was one of the most contradictory poets of Hungarian literature. He lived the life of a farmer, and wished to be close to the events of Hungarian literature. This contradiction, which he believed he could solve, made him...

, published in 1817, rendered him very unpopular. From 1821 to 1826 he published many separate poems of great beauty in the Aurora, Hebe, Aspasia, and other magazines of polite literature. He joined Pál Szemere in a new periodical, styled Élet és Literatúra (Life and Literature), which appeared from 1826 to 1829, in 4 vols., and gained for Kölcsey the highest reputation as a critical writer.

From 1832 to 1835 he sat in the Hungarian Diet

Diet of Hungary

The Diet of Hungary was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 15th century, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period...

, where his extreme liberal views and his eloquence soon rendered him famous as a parliamentary leader. Elected on November 17, 1830 a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest.-History:...

, he took part in its first grand meeting; in 1832, he delivered his famous oration on Kazinczy, and in 1836 that on his former opponent Dániel Berzsenyi. In 1838, when the opposition leader Miklós Wesselényi

Miklós Wesselényi

Baron Miklós Wesselényi de Hadad , was a Hungarian statesman, leader of the upper house of the Diet, member of the Board of Academy of Sciences, hero of the 1838 Pest flood....

 was thrown into prison upon a disputed charge of treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

, Kölcsey conducted his defense with noted eloquence, but without success. He died about a week afterwards at Cseke, from internal inflammation.

Kölcsey's strong moral sense and deep devotion to his country are reflected in his poems, his often severe but masterly literary criticism, and his funeral orations and parliamentary speeches. His collected works, in 6 volumes, were published at Pest, 1840–1848, and his journal of the Diet of 1832–1836 appeared in 1848. The first collected edition of all his works appeared in 1886–87.

A monument erected to the memory of Kölcsey was unveiled at Szatmárnémeti on September 25, 1864. His poem Himnusz

Himnusz

"Himnusz" is a song beginning with the words Isten, áldd meg a magyart that's a musical poetic prayer that serves as the official national anthem of Hungary. True to its title, Himnusz presents a more solemn and dignified tone than many other lively national anthems...

(1823), evoking the glory of Hungary's past, became the national anthem of Hungary.

Famous works

• Vanitatum Vanitas 1823.
• Himnusz 1823. The national anthem of Hungary
• Huszt 1831. Epigram