Vraz, Stanko

Born June 30, 1810, in Cerovats; died May 24, 1851, in Zagreb. Slovene and Croatian poet and critic.

Vraz was born into a peasant family. He studied at the University of Graz. He was a prominent figure in the Illyrian movement, a representative of romanticism, and the founder of progressive Croatian literary criticism. From 1842 to 1850, with L. Vukotinović and D. Rakovac, he published the journal Kolo. Vraz propagated the ideas of national renaissance and the necessity of independent national literary development in a common literary language. He was the author of several collections of both intimate and civic lyrics, Djulabija (1840), Voices From the Groves of Žeravinske (1841), and Guslas and Tambourines (1845). Vraz also translated Western European and Slavic poets and compiled the collection Illyrian Folk Songs (1839).