Hollý, Jan

Born Mar. 3, 1785. in Borky Sv. Mikulás; died Apr. 14, 1849. in Dobrá Voda. Slovak poet. Born into a peasant family.

Holly was a village priest. He used the Iliad as a model to compose epic works on subjects from ancient Slavic history, including Svatopluk (1833), Cirillo-Metodiada (1835), and Sláv (1839). In the cycle of idyllic poems Selanky (1835–36) he extolled Slovakia’s nature and rural life. Connected with the traditions of classicism, the works of Holly are imbued with patriotism and the idea of the concord of the Slavic peoples (the ode “To the Slovaks”).