Dragutin Domjanić

Dragutin Domjanić (12 September 1875 – 7 June 1933) was a Croatian poet.[1]

Dragutin Domjanić
Domjanić's bust in Strossmayer Square, Zagreb
Born	(1875-09-12)12 September 1875 Krči, near Adamovec, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	7 June 1933(1933-06-07) (aged 57) Zagreb, Yugoslavia
Occupation	Poet
Language	Croatian
Nationality	Croat

Domjanić was born in Krči, a village near the town of Sveti Ivan Zelina.[2] Having graduated law, he served as a judge in Zagreb and as a counsellor for Ban's Bench. He was a member of Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, the president of Matica hrvatska (1921–1926), and the president of Yugoslav PEN Club.[3] In a struggle between the "old" and the "young" in the framework of Croatian Modernism, he sides with the "young". He versified motifs such as spiritual love, intimacy of the nobility mansions, marquises and cavaliers of the past days. He fears the brutality of the present, mourns the world dying off, he is incredulous of new ideas.

His affection for the past directs him towards his mother tongue - Kajkavian. The most notable work of Domjanić is thus Kajkavian poem collection Kipci i popevke, and the poems "Fala" and "Popevke sam slagal", both set to music by Vlaho Paljetak.[4] Croatian composer Ivana Lang has in a similar manner set to music several Domjanić's poems. His lyrical expression, idyllic and sentimental, abounds both by the picturesqueness and musicality. He became the first writer in Croatian literature to achieve complete and artistically mature melodiousness and rhythmicity of the Croatian Kajkavian expression.

All of his poems were written in Kajkavian literary language, although his vernacular was Kajkavian dialect of Adamovec. He also wrote a number of literary accounts, and a few prosaic notes, chiefly in the spirit of his lyrical interests and stylistic manière.

He is also the other of less known "string puppet play" Petrica Kerempuh i spametni osel, in which he provides a critical and satirical account of Croatian intellectuals in the 1920s.

He died in Zagreb.