The literary heritage and cultural activities of the gifted Lithuanian prose-writer, literary critic and translator Antanas Vaičiulaitis (1906–1992) are reconsidered on the occasion of the onehundred- year anniversary of his birth. Antanas Vaičiulaitis is known by many as an erudite, a master of short stories, and a fine portrayer of human feelings. Here Came an Oriole, a collection of poetry published in the USA in 1980, as a fact of his creative work has received little illumination. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the artistic features of this A.Vaičiulaitis’ poetry collection as well as to define its place in the author’s creative work and in a wider Lithuanian poetry context. Antanas Vaičiulaitis was interested in poetry from the very beginning of his creative life; he studied the work of famous poets, wrote poems himself, translated foreign poets, especially his favourite Oscar Milosz, was fond of his country’s poetical heritage and tried to make Lithuanian poetry accessible to wider public. Like his prose writings, A.Vaičiulaitis’ poetry is characterised by sincerity, subtlety, the need to make the visible world more aesthetic, and to reach the spiritual dimension through the material reality. His poetry is light and full of hope (we see the influence of the Catholic worldview). Lithuanian classic A.Vaičiulaitis’ prose is more valuable than the poetry collection Here Came an Oriole, which was published with some delay and did not have a significant impact on the development of Lithuanian poetry. A.Vaičiulaitis’ Here Came an Oriole enables us to see the author’s poetic nature, to get familiar with the poetry issues, and to gain a better understanding of the entirety of the author’s creative work. The most interesting parts of the volume are the poems containing stylisations of Lithuanian folklore heritage elements. Antanas Vaičiulaitis’ poetry lacks exclusivity and originality, and the influence of neo-romanticists and žemininkai (Jonas Aistis, Kazys Bradūnas) is noticeable.

Numeriai:

2011 - T.57
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2010 - T.56
Nr.1-4

2009 - T.55
Nr.1-2, Nr.3-4

2008 - T.54
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2007 - T.53
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2006
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2005
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2004
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2003
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2002
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2001
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4