Petőfi's Poetics: Freedom, Love, and the Heroic Self – A Preprint

This study presents the first systematic examination of Sándor Petőfi's poetics, focusing on the three interlocking themes that define his work: freedom, love, and the heroic self. Despite Petőfi's status as Hungary's national poet and his importance in European Romanticism, no comprehensive study of his poetics exists in any language. This study fills that gap by analyzing the core structures of Petőfi's poetry: his imagery of freedom, his construction of the lyrical self, his treatment of love as both personal and political, and his cultivation of the heroic image that would define his legacy. Through close reading of key texts—"National Song," "Liberty and Love," "One Thought Disturbs Me," and the epic The Apostle—this study traces the development of Petőfi's poetic voice and its transformation of Romantic conventions into a distinctly Hungarian idiom. The study also explores Petőfi's engagement with the Hungarian origin myth of the Huns, revealing how his poetry draws on the image of the Eastern horseman to construct his heroic self. The study argues that Petőfi's poetics represents a unique synthesis of Romantic individualism and national collectivism, and that his work offers a model of the poet as both artist and hero.