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Defiant Soul

An Autobiographical Poem by Anna Ludwika Radziwiłłowa de domo Mycielska

Summary/Abstract: The article contains an edition of an autobiographical poem by Anna Ludwika Radziwiłłowa de domo Mycielska (1729–1771) preceded by a literary historical introduction. The piece, unpublished so far, was restored as based on two handwritten copies. Anna Ludwika Mycielska married in 1744 Leon Michał Radziwiłł, with which she became close to the court of Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa, a poetess and an animator of theatre life in Nesvish Castle. It is likely that Anna Ludwika started composing poems under Franciszka Urszula’s influence. Sickly Leon Michał passes away in the year 1751. After his death the young widow, uncertain about her destiny and concerned about her children’s sicknesses, composed a lamentatory verse in which she complains about the suffering after the death of his father and husband, the latter’s long sickness and adequately unexplained defamation. Discouraged to people, she directs her complaint to God, combining an autobiographical statement with the phraseology typical of prayer literature. Anna Ludwika Radziwiłłowa’s poem is an example of an 18th century Polish female poetry which deserves extraction from manuscripts and description

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