Milan Rakić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

: Милан Ракић; 18 September 1876 – 30 June 1938) was a Serbian

poet-diplomat Poet-diplomats are poets who have also served their countries as diplomats. The best known poet-diplomats are perhaps Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Wyatt; the category also includes recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ivo Andrić, Gabrie ...

and academic. He focused on dodecasyllable and

hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...

verse, which allowed him to achieve beautiful

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

and

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

in his poems. He was quite a perfectionist and therefore only published three collections of poems (1903, 1912, 1924). He wrote largely about death and non-existence, keeping the tone sceptical and ironic. Some of his most well-known poems are ''An Honest Song'' (Iskrena pesma), ''A Desperate Song'' (Očajna pesma), ''Jefimija'', '' Simonida'' and ''At Gazi-Mestan'' (Na Gazi-Mestanu). He was a member of the Serbian Royal Academy (1934).

Biography

Early life

Rakić was born on 18 September 1876 in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

to father Mita and mother Ana (née Milićević). His father, educated abroad, was Serbia's Minister of Finance (1888) and his mother was the daughter of Serbian writer Milan Milićević. He finished elementary school (grade school) and high school (gymnasium) in

. He completed law school in Paris. It was in Paris that he, like

Jovan Dučić Jovan Dučić ( sr-cyr, Јован Дучић, ; 17 February 1871 – 7 April 1943) was a Herzegovinian Serb poet-diplomat and academic. He is one of the most influential Serbian lyricists and modernist poets. Dučić published his first collec ...

, came under the influence of French Symbolist poets. They both had learned to admire French culture and had dreamed of a better world after the war. After returning to Belgrade from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

he became a diplomat (also like Dučić) for the Serbian (and later Yugoslav) government and remained in that job until nearly his death, representing the country abroad.

Personal life

His sister Ljubica was married to

Milan Grol Milan Grol (12 September 1876 – 3 December 1952) was a Serbian literary critic, historian and politician. He was also director of the National Theatre of Serbia. Biography Milan Grol was born in Belgrade on 12 September 1876. He completed hi ...

; and his wife Milica was the daughter of

Ljubomir Kovačević Ljubomir Kovačević (4 January 1848 – 19 November 1918) was a Serbian writer, historian, academic, and politician. He is one of the early creators of the Serbian critical historiographical school and fighters for the separation of historical ...

, a distinguished Serbian historian and politician.

Death

He died prematurely in 1938 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

after a surgical operation. He is interred in the

Belgrade New Cemetery The New Cemetery ( sr, Ново гробље, ''Novo groblje'') is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia, with a distinct history. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christia ...

.International graves
/ref>

Works

* ''Collection of Poems'', 1903 * ''Collection of Poems'', 1912 * ''Collection of Poems'', 1924

References

Sources

Jovan Skerlić Jovan Skerlić (, ; 20 August 1877 – 15 May 1914) was a Serbian writer and literary critic.''Jovan Skerlić u srpskoj književnosti 1877–1977: Zbornik radova''. Posebna izdanja, Institut za knjizevnost i umetnost, Belgrade. He is seen as one ...

, ''Istorija nove srpske književnosti'' (Belgrade, 1914 and 1921), pp. 458–60.

External links

*
Article on Serbian Poetry

Translated works by Milan Rakić
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rakic, Milan 1876 births 1938 deaths Writers from Belgrade 20th-century Serbian people Serbian male poets Diplomats from Belgrade People from the Principality of Serbia People of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery