A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem

A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem (in Polish Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod) is a poem by Polish poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid. It is an elegy for a famous Polish commander Józef Bem who was a hero of three nations, Polish, Hungarian and Turkish. It was written in 1851. The poem is a description of a imaginary funeral. It is described as a funeral of a medieval knight or Slavic warrior, encased in armour, with his horse and a falcon, accompanied by groups of boys and girls. The poem is especially interesting because of its form. It was written in rhymed hexameter. All the lines are made up of fifteen (7+8) syllables according to the pattern ' x ' x x ' x || ' x x ' x x ' x.

Norwid's poem was translated into English by Adam Czerniawski. It was sung by Czesław Niemen.

Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Poezje. Poems. Selection, translation and afterword by Adam Czerniawski, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1986, ISBN .

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