Ján Hollý Biography | Poet

Ján Hollý (24 March 1785, Borský Mikuláš – 14 April 1849, Dobrá Voda ) was a Slovak poet and translator. He was the first greater Slovak poet to write exclusively in the newly standardized literary Slovak language. His predecessors mostly wrote in various regional versions of Czech, Slovakized Czech or Latin. Hollý translated Virgil 's Aeneid and wrote his own epic poetry in alexandrine verse to show that the Slovak language recently standardized by Anton Bernolák was capable of expressing complex poetic forms.