Aleksa Šantić
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Also see: Aleksa Šantić (disambiguation)
Aleksa Šantić (Cyrillic: Алекса Шантић) (born May 27, 1868, died February 2, 1924) was a Bosnian Serb poet. He was born, brought up, lived most his life, and died in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He attended merchant schools in Trieste, Italy and Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The work of Aleksa Šantić was both high in quality and high in volume, which earned him a high place in the pantheon of South Slavic poetry. He was strongly influenced by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Vojislav Ilić and Heinrich Heine. The topics and images of his poems ranged from strong emotions for social injustices of his time to nostalgic love. His poems about Mostar and the river Neretva breathe pure patriotism and are considered particularly beautiful. Šantić wrote a number of love songs in the style of the Bosniak love songs, sevdalinkas. His most well known sevdalinka is Emina (popular female name), to which music was composed and it is often sung at restaurants (kafanas).
Aleksa Šantić, a village in Serbia is named after this poet. He is also pictured on 10 Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible marks bill.
