Pranas Vaičaitis

Pranas Vaičaitis (10 February 1876 – 21 September 1901) was a Lithuanian poet. After graduation from the Marijampolė Gymnasium, he studied law at the Saint Petersburg University. Due to the violations of the Lithuanian press ban, he was imprisoned for a month in 1899 and could not find a jurist job.

With the help of professor Eduards Volters, he obtained a job at the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences before progressing tuberculosis forced him to return home. He died at the age of 25 and left less than a hundred original poems. His first poems were published in 1896 in Varpas though the vast majority of them were published in Vienybė lietuvninkų, a Lithuanian newspaper published in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. The first collection of his poems was published posthumously in 1903 in the United States. His poems are popular, particularly those about nature in Lithuania, and have been adopted to folk songs. His poetry is sensitive, intimate, without more complex metaphors or lyrical devices, and with a depth of feeling that distinguishes it from other poetry of the period.

Biography Early life and education Vaičaitis was born in the village on the Penta river near Sintautai, Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland. He attended a primary school in Sintautai and Marijampolė Gymnasium.