Šantic, Aleksa

Born May 27, 1868, in Mostar, Hercegovina; died there Feb. 2, 1924. Serbian poet associated with the liberation movement in Hercegovina.

Šantić studied at business schools in Ljubljana and Trieste. His first collection, Poems, appeared in 1891. He later published six more books under that title, as well as a collection entitled On the Old Hearths (1913). In Šantić’s poetry lofty civic sentiments, intense lyricism, and a tendency toward generalized images are combined with profound social content in depictions of the hard lot of the peasants and vivid portraits of working people. His poems above love and nature display a heartfelt lyricism. The poet’s faith in the victory of the working class is expressed in “Underground Song” (1920). Šantić also wrote two dramas in verse, In the Fog (1911) and Hasan-Aganica (1911).