Mácha, Karel Hynek

Mácha, Karel Hynek (kä'rel hē'nek mä'khä) [key], 1810–36, Czech romantic poet. After studying law at the Univ. of Prague he became a civil servant. He published a number of promising poems and wrote Pictures from My Life, introspective autobiographical sketches. This work was followed by Gypsies (1835–36), a novel. His long iambic poem May (1836, tr. 1932) is considered the finest lyric work in the Czech language; Czech iambic verse dates from this work. Mácha's profoundly melancholy and nostalgic verse reveals his strong response to nature, medievalism, and Czech civilization as well as his fatalistic philosophy.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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