The WW1 And The Bloody Sonnets
- infoglobalslovakia
- Jul 27
- 5 min read
By: Nina
In 1914, the world was plunged into what would eventually become known as the First World War. Slovakia, then still a part of Austria-Hungary, found itself allied with Germany, which had played a pivotal role in starting the conflict. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo had provided the spark, but the underlying causes ran much deeper.
The lasting ambitions of all European powers to expand their zones of influence had created a strain on the existing balance of power—a precarious equilibrium that needed only the slightest push to snap completely. Austria-Hungary and Germany entered the war together, joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria on one side, standing in opposition to the powers of the Entente.
Before we address the author and the work that this article aims to explore, let us first understand the context in which it was created. The First World War was the largest conflict Europe had ever witnessed up to that point.
In the intervening decades, European powers had been innovating and improving their military equipment and training with unprecedented intensity. At the outbreak of war, Germany arguably possessed the best-organized and equipped army, while Russian troops were still fighting with weapon models over a century old.
As for Austria-Hungary, significant challenges arose when it attempted to form a unified fighting force. The empire was a multiethnic state comprising numerous nationalities—Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs, Poles, and Romanians, to name just a few. Consequently, there were tangible communication problems between individual army units, which were often composed of multiple nationalities simultaneously, despite German being the official military language. Nevertheless, they fought with sufficient strength, though most of the Empire's failures originated from poor leadership rather than lack of courage.
After the war ended in defeat for the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary broke apart. Here is where the country of Czechoslovakia first emerges on the world stage. Based on multiple declarations and largely due to the efforts of two remarkable men—Tomáš Masaryk and Milan Rastislav Štefánik, a Czech and a Slovak respectively—this new nation was born.
Each would deserve a separate article dedicated to their contributions, but for now, let us content ourselves with acknowledging their pivotal roles. Austria-Hungary was dismantled, giving rise to the countries of Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
The concept of Czechoslovak nationality was strategically formed so that the combined citizens of Czech and Slovak heritage would outnumber the substantial Hungarian and German population within the new borders. The country emerged as democratic with a generally promising economy, but it would last for only a brief moment in the grand scheme of history—carved up by the Munich Agreement of 1938, further divided during the Second World War, and then absorbed into the Soviet sphere of influence in the latter half of the 20th century.
Now that these essential facts have been established, let us venture back to the war "to end all wars" and explore how one Slovak literary giant responded to this unprecedented catastrophe.
In the small town of Dolný Kubín, nestled in what was then Austria-Hungary, lived an older man who had already achieved fame for his literary work. His name was Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav—though his surname was actually a pseudonym he had created for himself. In loose translation, it means "he who celebrates the stars," and with this chosen name, the poet paid homage to the starry skies he had admired since childhood.
Hviezdoslav viewed the war as a terrible catastrophe and disagreed with it vehemently, already foreseeing the destruction and suffering it would unleash. In response and as an act of protest, he wrote a series of 32 sonnets titled Krvavé sonety - The Bloody Sonnets.
The work could not be published in a country that desperately needed the support of its home front to maintain morale, so the manuscript was hidden away, and the poems spread only by word of mouth until 1919. These verses represented a synthesis of his anti-war convictions, and in crafting them, he experimented boldly with creating new words in the Slovak language. True to the sonnet form, each poem contained no more than 14 lines, with each verse structured in 11 syllables, the iambic rhythm giving the work a profound and almost tangible musicality.
The sonnet, that relatively brief genre of poetry, took on new dimensions in Hviezdoslav's hands as he twisted words with a mastery that would bring him ever closer to becoming one of his nation's greatest writers. Throughout this body of work, he asked relentlessly: who bore responsibility for this conflict? Why had it been brought about? And why did human pride stand so stubbornly in the way of the peace so desperately missed?
He observed the deterioration of culture and morals with alarm and warned against the abandonment of the Christian principle of loving one's neighbor. Invoking multiple deities—those of ancient Romans, Slavs, and other cultures—he attempted to find some sort of sense in what he perceived as the madness that had seized the world around him, searching for a god who might somehow be pleased by the spectacle of nations slaughtering each other.
Inevitably, he concluded that only pride and selfishness could be blamed for the violence and lasting devastation of the war, and he appealed to his readers' sense of morality and empathy to persuade them to sympathize with his ideas and oppose the senseless conflict.
Hviezdoslav stands without question as one of the most influential figures in Slovak literary history. Beyond these powerful sonnets, he authored several acclaimed plays and translated the works of literary giants such as Pushkin, Goethe, and Shakespeare into the Slovak language, enriching his nation's cultural heritage immeasurably.
To honor his contributions, dozens of streets and squares bear his name throughout Slovakia, including Hviezdoslavovo námestie in the capital city of Bratislava, where a statue depicts him deep in thought, as if contemplating another story to write. There is even a town called Hviezdoslavov in Slovakia, and a minor planet bears his name—3980 Hviezdoslav. His contribution to Slovak literature is profound and enduring; without it, the literary landscape would surely lack its current richness and depth.
So allow yourself to browse through his collected works and perhaps delve into one of them, to discover this land as it existed a century ago, seen through the eyes of a great man who loved the stars and had the courage to speak truth in the face of unprecedented darkness.
You can experience this monumental work of art live and English on September 5, also thanks to our partner organisation +421 Foundation.
Experience this monumental work of art live in English on September 5, thanks to the +421 Foundation.
Bloody Sonnets by Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav — a haunting meditation on war, humanity, and hope, brought to life in the heart of New York City.
When: September 5, 2024
Where: La MaMa Theater NYC, 66 East 4th Street
Tickets: Available online!
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Team Global Slovakia