"Tükröcske eggy ficzkópoéta számára" : Ungvárnémeti Tóth László kritikai fogadtatása

Abstract

Ungvárnémeti Tóth is one of the forgotten poets of Hungarian literature. The paper detects why. The main cause is U. Tóth's confrontation with his contemporaries politically and poetically as well. Born in a poor family, living in the Hungary of great estates without owing even a small estate, studying to be a doctor to be able to conquer nature, he wrote poems in Greek and in Hungarian, His works were published just after the fall of Napoleon and praised — though not straight-forwardly — Napoleon. He tried to accomodate himself to the circumstances but could not. He dared to write even on human equality; he could not swallow the widespread and almost compulsory Christian-stoic way of thinking. In his views on poetry he got near Romanticism. The conservative attacks against him (especially that of Samuel Terhes, giving the title of this paper „Little Mirror for a Fellow of a Poet") were aimed at his thoughts, his poetry and even at his private morals. After his death at the age of 32, his works wre soon completely forgotten in spite of the preserving efforts of Kazinczy. A complete edition of his works is recommended and urged in the paper.