Anton Aškerc

Anton Aškerc (pronounced [anˈtoːn ˈaːʃkɛrts]) (9 January 1856 – 10 June 1912) was an ethnic Slovene poet and Roman Catholic priest who worked in Austria, best known for his epic poems.

Aškerc was born into a peasant family near the town of Rimske Toplice in the Duchy of Styria, then part of the Austrian Empire (now in Slovenia). His exact birthplace is unknown because his family was on the move at the time of his birth. After graduating from high school in Celje he entered the Roman Catholic theological seminary in Maribor. He was ordained a priest in 1880. The same year he published his first poem entitled Trije popotniki ("The Three Travelers") in the progressive literary magazine Ljubljanski zvon.

He started his literary career by writing lyric poetry, but after 1882 moved to more epic themes. His post-romantic poems express his patriotism, love and religious doubt. The themes of his ballades and romances come from Slovene and Slavic history, the Bible, folk traditions as well as contemporary life. He became strongly influenced by literary realism, writing some of his best known poems in this style, but never fully rejected post-romanticism.