Ivan Krasko is one of the founders of modern Slovak lyric poetry, a leading representative of the Slovak Modern movement, Slovak symbolism, and a significant poet of European symbolism. In later verse he aptly called his poems "snivels of
a naked soul". From his early poems published in periodicals, he explored song-like lyric poetry stripped of privatissimo, poems of sad harmony arising from an unfulfilled, one-sided love affair, from the feeling of fated delay, wasted opportunities and disappointed expectations. With the collection Nox et solitido he directed Slovak poetry towards man`s internal problems. Its title, meaningfully associating night and solitude, provides the basic characteristic of the lyrical subject` situation. A night setting is characteristic of only some of the poems. More often they take place during the day, but the days are almost all foggy, rainy and grey, and therefore resemble the night in some way. The night is not merely a time, but also
a symbol. Krasko`s solitude is not individualistic, but solidary - the lyrical subject is recognized through his sin towards God, and his destitute "kneading". The solitude is caused by the breakdown of relationships, mainly with women, and isolation from home. The poems have the ordinary nature of sentimental dramas. Frustration at others and at himself leads to a feeling of loss of perspective, while the lyrical subject shows his openness towards others. Krasko pays special attention to the thematisation of the mysteries of the human psyche, relationships and existence. He is also frustrated by the nation`s national and social situation. An important source of the subject`s plight is his own passivity. Some poems show signs of a change of subject. His second collection Verse leaves behind night and solitude and breaks their cycle. With great intensity Krasko thematises the conflict between an urgently felt need for faith as an existential certainty and its failings. Here we see a struggle between scepticism and the awareness of a moral responsibility towards man, also reflected in the postulation of the need for thought and understanding. The main source of the change in subject is a woman. Krasko`s poetry is characterized by traces of symbolism which can be seen through its imagery, sound and punctuation, and euphonic verse which significantly contributed to the creation of semantic poems. In the context of European symbolism, Krasko is a poet of the Verlaine type. However, in contrast to Verlaine, intellect and awareness of solidarity with "the poor and humble" play a greater role.
