Goszczynski, Seweryn

Born Nov. 4. 1801, in Il’intsy. near Uman’; died Feb. 25, 1876, in L’vov. Polish revolutionary, poet, and publicist.

Goszczyński took part in the Polish Uprising of 1830–31. Later, he carried on revolutionary propaganda in the Free City of Krakow and in Galicia and was one of the organizers and leaders of the conspiratorial patriotic organization Fellowship of the Polish People. In 1838 he emigrated to France. In the late 1830’s and early 1840’s he was active in the Polish Democratic Society.

In the 1820’s, Goszczynski published poems attacking tyranny, the magnates, and the church. In his poem Kaniowski Castle (1828) romantic mystery and the themes of revolt and revenge are combined with a description of the peasant movement of 1768 (koliivshchina), revealing the fury of the common people. The poem also reflects the author’s interest in Ukrainian folklore. Goszczyński was a literary critic, a publicist, and the author of folkloric and ethnologic works such as the Diary of a Journey to the Tatras (1832), the narrative poem Sobótka (1834), and the prose poem King of the Old Castle (1842). In the 1840’s, Goszczyński was influenced by mysticism.