Lyrics and Ethics

This article addresses the role of ethical questions in poetics of different generations and schools of poetry through our modernity. It is noted that there is certain symmetry between the first and second halves of the century. The century began with the complete removal of ethical criteria in lyrics, and then in the twenties, these same criteria became prioritized, while after that a kind of balance was established. The second half of the century began to stress ethical components (krugovaši*), only for them to be completely discarded (razlogovci**), and then balance reestablished later on. Examples of the above are given through the poetry of Dragutin Domjanić, Vlado Gotovac and Boris Maruna. * Krugovaši was a group of writers, mostly poets, gathered around Krug (The Circle) magazine, published in the period between 1952 and 1958. They advocated the modern elements in poetry by following the modern trends of European poetry and introducing free verse, lyrical, variety and freshness into poetry, thus representing the revival of Croatian poetry after the Second World War. ** Razlogovci was a group of writers, mostly poets, gathered around Razlog (The Reason) magazine which started in 1961. They were also pro-modern, but unlike krugovaši, they tended to intellectualize poetry. After Krug was extinguished, razlogovci subjected poetic word to philosophical ideas