Pavol Horov

Horov started to publish his poems in various magazines (Svojeť, Elán etc.) in 1931. His first poems were obviously influenced by Slovak folk songs and nineteenth century lyrical poetry but soon he became inspired by the more contemporary poetry of L. Novomeský. From the very beginning he protested against aggression and war. When he said that it is impossible for him to keep quiet when thousands of people are being killed and the war is destroying homes and all human values, he expressed his own experience. He lost his father in the battlefields of the First World War the very year he was born. Poetry never disappointed him; it gave him moral support and was the opposite of war madness. Horov's aversion to war grew even stronger in the ears of Second World War. Antiwar humanism, inherent in his work, reached its peak in a book of poems Niobe with the central mother figure taken from Greek mythology. Love for every human being as the basic quality of our lives and feelings of togetherness and compassion with suffering people shine through all his poems. After Second World War he returned once more to the antiwar theme, and by introducing "defilé" of losses, victims and suffering of mankind he closed the war issue and expressed his belief in the irreversible ways leading to a better future. At that time he wrote poems in memory of victims who died in the East Slovak village of Tokajík burned down by the Nazis. Another source of Horov's poetry is his strongly felt connection with his homeland and his mother. For him, these were untouchable values and sources of relief in bad times. The image of homeland created by him is the only value "steady in time" and "safe in space". It helps the poet to overcome sadness, pain and injuries caused by the war. Here he reflects on issues like the meaning of life, time flowing by, on rises and falls. In his post-war works he reacts to the real and contradictory complexities of life in a conflicting world. He penetrates the inner world of man and very private feelings of joy and sadness, meditating over the old and the new. Themes and impressions from his trip to Italy prevail in his last poems that still have human-oriented content with elements of self-reflection, self-judgement and sensitivity towards life.

 

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