"O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country", also known as "Hymn to the Love of the Country" (Hymn do miłości ojczyzny), is a patriotic poem by the Polish Enlightenment author and poet, Ignacy Krasicki, published in 1774. It became one of Poland's national anthems.

History

Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801) was the leading literary representative of the Polish Enlightenment—a prose writer and poet highly esteemed by his contemporaries, who admired his works for their plots, wit, imagination and fluid style. Krasicki read his poem, "O Sacred Love," at a Thursday Dinner hosted by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The poet published it in 1774 in Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne (Pastimes Pleasant and Profitable). It subsequently became part of song 9 of his 1775 mock-heroic poem, "Myszeida" (The Mouseiad). Popular during the Enlightenment, Krasicki's patriotic poem became the anthem of the Warsaw Corps of Cadets. It has gone through many translations, including three into French.

Text and translation

The poem is written in lines of 11 syllables, in ottava rima (rhyme scheme AB AB AB CC).