Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (Lithuanian: Adomas Bernardas Mickevičius; 24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) is a Polish poet, publicist and political writer.
A prime representative of the Polish Romantic period, he is one of that country's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all Polish literature.
He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets.
He is a leading Romantic dramatist and has been compared in Poland and in western Europe to Byron and Goethe.
He is known primarily as the author of the poetic novel Dziady and national epic Pan Tadeusz, which is considered the last great epic of Polish-Lithuanian noble culture.
Mickiewicz's other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna.
All serve as inspiration during regional uprisings and as foundations for the concept of Poland as "the Christ of Nations."
Mickiewicz is active in the struggle to achieve independence for his homeland, at this time part of the Russian Empire.
Having spent five years in internal exile in central Russia for political activities, he leaves the Empire in 1829 and spends the rest of his life in emigration, like many of his compatriots.
He settles first in Rome, later in Paris, where he becomes professor of Slavic literature at the Collège de France.
He dies, probably of cholera, at Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, where he had gone to help organize Polish forces to fight against Russia in the Crimean War.
His remains are later moved to Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland.
