Laments

Plot

Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584) is acknowledged to be the first great poet in Poland's vernacular literary tradition. His Treny (or Laments) represent the height of his achievement. They are an impassioned, yet impeccably controlled, expression of grief over the death of his daughter Orszula, and, while their power scandalized Kochanowski's contemporaries, they came at length to be considered an enduring masterpiece.