Sapphic stanza in Polish poetry is a hymn included in "Gorzkie żale" ("Bitter Lamentations"), a typically Polish Catholic devotion, sung in churches on Sundays during Lent, and familiar to many Poles. Neither Adam Mickiewicz nor Juliusz Słowacki used the classic Sapphic stanza. Słowacki, however, employed its general scheme in his own six-line stanza, discussed below. Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a poet regarded as one of the greatest Polish authors and perhaps the most modern of the poets of the 19th century, used Sapphic stanzas in the poem named "Trzy zwrotki" ("Three strophes"), as well as in many other poems including "Sieroctwo" ("Orphanhood"). Sometimes he implemented the
Sapphic stanza in Polish poetry to Greek and Roman literature as a model. Jan Kochanowski, the most prominent of a family of poets, wrote lyrical poems, often in imitation of Horace. The classic Polish Sapphic stanza was thus 11(5+6) / 11(5+6) / 11(5+6) / 5, typically rhymed "a a b b". Jan Kochanowski used this Sapphic stanza several times in his "Cantos", "Laments", and "Psalms". An excellent example is "Lament XVI". Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński, who was the author of "Rymy, abo wiersze polskie" ("The rhymes or Polish poems") and Sebastian Grabowiecki, who was the author of "Setnik rymów duchownych" ("Spiritual Rhymes") also used Sapphic stanzas in