SOURCE: Morfill, William R. “Polish Literature.” Westminster Review LV, no. II (April 1, 1879) 359-86.

In the following excerpt, Morfill discusses Mickiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, Pan Thadeusz, and Konrad Wallenrod, lamenting the poet’s relative obscurity outside of Poland.

Of all the writings of Mickiewicz, his lyrical pieces strike us as the most beautiful, and show the [Polish] language in its strength and grace. His works are but little known except to his own countrymen, and there was both pathos and irony in the expression used by a Polish lady to a foreigner, “Nous avons notre Mickiewicz á nous.” As yet, no translation into English has appeared, as far as we are aware, of any production of the poet. There is a somewhat tame version in French prose by a compatriot, Christian Ostrowski, and Mickiewicz is said to have winced at the travesty of himself, which had been accomplished by an honest...