The oeuvre of Josip Murn (pen name Aleksandrov, 1879–1901) belongs to the Slovene variant of neo-romanticism, the moderna period (1899–1918). It rests on subjectivity with its moods, emotions and dreams, a subjectivity which finds its impressionistic voice in short atmospheric or confessional poems with symbolic undertones. The poet published no book in his short lifetime: his début collection, Pesmi in romance (Songs and Romances), was published posthumously in 1903. The contents were selected by the poet’s friend and renowned literary historian, Ivan Prijatelj, whose introduction was the first aesthetic evaluation of the author’s work. Murn’s popularity rose after the Great War and peaked after World War II, when his poetry decisively influenced the poets of Slovene intimism. Today Murn is considered a major national lyric poet, the one who salvaged Slovene poetry from the grip of national and social ideologies, internalising it completely.
