''Beniowski'' is a poem written and composed by one of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

's "Three National Bards", Juliusz Słowacki. The first section was published in 1841, however the remaining parts were written by Antoni Malecki after Słowacki's death in 1849. The content of the poem summarizes the events that occurred during the infamous

Bar Confederation The Bar Confederation (; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (''szlachta'') formed at the fortress of Bar, Ukraine, Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian C ...

; the fight against the

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

and rebellious Ruthenian peasants, which took place in the Eastern borderlands (Polish: ''Kresy'') of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It tells the story of Maurycy Beniowski, an impoverished

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

and

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

in the region of

Podolia Podolia or Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and northeastern Moldova (i.e. northern Transnistria). Podolia is bordered by the Dniester River and Boh River. It features ...

, and his love to a wealthy lady living in a nearby castle with her intolerant family. The poem is often described as digressive. It is a composition that marks a temporary shift of a subject; the digression ends when the plot returns to the main topic. Furthermore, Słowacki has intentionally used digression to create a somewhat rhetorical meaning to the text.

References

Polish poems 1841 poems Works by Juliusz Słowacki Epic poems in Polish {{Poem-stub