Cyprian Kamil Norwid (; – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is more aptly described as a late romantic or an early modernist.
Norwid led a tragic, often poverty-stricken life. He experienced mounting health problems, unrequited love, harsh critical reviews, and increasing social isolation. For most of his life he lived abroad, having left Polish lands in his twenties. Having briefly travelled across Western Europe in his youth, and briefly travelling to the United States, where he worked as an illustrator, he lived chiefly in Paris, where he eventually died.
Considered a "rising star" in his youth, Norwid's original, nonconformist style was not appreciated in his lifetime. Partly due to this, he was excluded from high society. His work was rediscovered and appreciated only after his death by the Young Poland movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Today his most influential work is considered to be Vade-mecum, a vast anthology of verse he finished in 1866. Much of his work, including Vade-mecum, remained unpublished during his lifetime.
Life
Youth
thumb|upright|South annex of [[Czapski Palace (Krakowskie Przedmieście 5, Warsaw), where Chopin lived to 1830. In 1837–39 Norwid studied painting here.]]
Cyprian Norwid was born on 24 September 1821 into a family of Polish–Lithuanian minor nobility bearing the Topór coat of arms, His father was a minor government official.
Cyprian Norwid and his brother were orphaned early. His mother died when Cyprian was four years old, and in 1835 his father also died: Norwid was 14 at the time. and entered a private school of painting, studying under Aleksander Kokular and . His incomplete formal education forced him to become an autodidact, and eventually he learned a dozen languages. That year he published ten poems and one short story. his fiancée Kamila broke off their engagement. Later he met Maria Kalergis, née Nesselrode; they became acquaintances, but his courtship of her, and later, of her lady-in-waiting, Maria Trebicka, ended in failure. After being forced to leave Prussia in 1846, Norwid went to Brussels. 1849 saw several of his poems published, those included among others his ' (Social Song). Promethidion, a long treatise on aesthetics in verse, has been called "the first important piece of Norwid's writing". and the poem Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod (A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem).
United States
Norwid decided to emigrate to the United States in the Fall of 1852, receiving some sponsorship from Wladysław Zamoyski, a Polish nobleman and philanthropist. On 11 February 1853, after a harrowing journey, he arrived in New York City aboard the Margaret Evans, and he held a number of odd jobs there, including at a graphics firm. He was involved in the creation of the memorial album of the Crystal Palace Exhibition and the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations.
Back in Paris
During April 1854, Norwid returned to Europe with Prince . He lived in England and with Krasiński's help he was finally able to return to Paris by December that year. He gave a well-received series of six lectures on Juliusz Słowacki in 1860, published the next year. His 1865 ' (Chopin's Piano) is seen as one of his works reacting to the January Uprising.
Norwid continued writing, but most of his work met with little recognition. He grew to accept this, and even wrote in one his works that "the sons pass by this writing, but you, my distant grandchild, will read it... when I'll be no more" (', The Hands Were Swollen by Clapping..., 1858). One of the reasons for this included Prince Władysław Czartoryski failing to grant the poet the loan he had promised. In subsequent years, Norwid lived in extreme poverty and suffered from tuberculosis. Those years also saw him write three more plays, comedies ' (Actor. Comedy-drama, 1867), ' (Behind the Scenes, 1865–1866), and ' (The Ring of a Grand Lady, 1872), which Gömöri praised as Norwid's "real genre within the theater".