hulit1-5, Exercise 2: Ady, Babits and Kosztolanyi

Model answer (check the details):

Ady (1877 to 1919): the leading voice of the first generation. His poems are rich, symbolic and often prophetic, about love, death and the nation's failures, and drew on French symbolism. He brought a new intensity and a willingness to criticise his own country.

Babits (1883 to 1941): learned, classical and ethically serious. He was a poet, a translator (including Dante) and a critic, and edited Nyugat in its later years. He brought craft, wide reading and a sense of literature's moral task.

Kosztolanyi (1885 to 1936): subtle and ironic, writing poems, essays and novels such as Anna Edes (1926). He brought delicacy of observation, an interest in childhood, death and the inner life, and a refined prose style.

Differences: Ady is prophetic and passionate, Babits is scholarly and serious, Kosztolanyi is ironic and precise. Together they show the range of the movement.