Dragutin Domjanić

Who was Dragutin Domjanić?

Dragutin Domjanić was a Croatian poet.

Domjanić was born in Zelina. He became the first writer in Croatian literature to achieve complete and artistically mature melodiousness and rhythmicity of the Croatian Kajkavian expression. 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 and the president of Matica hrvatska. 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 the Kajkavian dialect. 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. 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.