Jovan Dučić, a Serbian poet, writer and diplomat, was born on this in 1874.
He is one of the most significant poets of Serbian modernism and the most significant lyricist. He was also one of the founders of National Defense, a national non-governmental organization in the Kingdom of Serbia.
Dučić published his first collection of poems in Mostar in 1901 in the edition of Mostar’s “Dawn”, then another in Belgrade in 1908 in the edition of the Serbian Literary Cooperative. He has also written extensively in prose: several literary essays and studies on writers, The Treasure of Emperor Radovan, and poetry letters from Switzerland, Greece and Spain.
He was elected a Corresponding Member of the Serbian Royal Academy and was elected a full member in 1931.
Dučić was influenced by Vojislav Ilić at the beginning of his poetry work; but when he went aside, he freed himself from that influence and built up his individual lyricism following the patterns of the French Parnassians, the Decadents, and especially the Symbolists. In an era of a general cult following Western fashion, his poetry truly meant novelty and refreshment, both in motifs and expression.
He died on April 7, 1943, at the age of 69.
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