Aleksa Šantić (Serbian Cyrillic: Алекса Шантић, pronounced [ǎleksa ʃǎ:ntitɕ] (listenⓘ); 27 May 1868 – 2 February 1924) was a Herzegovinian Serb poet and writer from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Šantić wrote about the urban culture of his hometown Mostar and Herzegovina, the growing national awareness of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Serbs, social injustice, nostalgic love, and the unity of the South Slavs.

Just as Šantić turned 10 years of age, Bosnia Vilayet (including Mostar) was occupied by Austria-Hungary, in accordance with the decision made by the European Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin during the summer of 1878.

The family did not have much patience for Aleksa's lyrical talents, so in 1880 and 1881, Šantić attended a Merchant school in Trieste in Italian language.

[8] As followers of Vojislav Ilić's romanticism, Svetozar Ćorović, Jovan Dučić and Aleksa Šantić were among leaders of cultural and national movement of Bosnian and Herzegovina Serbs.

[18] In this capacity Aleksa came into focus of regional social life, which, by its cultural and national consciousness, showed an opposition to the German Kulturträger.

In the spring of 1909, the Bosnian Crisis caused by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, forced Aleksa Šantić to escape to Italy together with Nikola Kašiković and Svetozar Ćorović.

[19] In 1910, the Šantić family bought a country house in the village Borci, on the plateau below Prenj mountain and above Boračko lake between Konjic and Glavatičevo.

Šantić belonged to poets who wrote whole collections of songs glorifying victories of Army of Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars, including On the coast of Drač (Serbian: На обали Драча) which glorifies liberation of the ancient city that once was part of the Serbian Kingdom under King Milutin.

[26] Following example of his friend Jovan Dučić, Šantić also published his first song in literature magazine Pidgeon, its 1887 New Year's Eve edition.

[30] The oeuvre of Aleksa Šantić, widely accessible yet acutely personal, is a blend of fine-tuned emotional sensibility and clear-eyed historical awareness, steeped in the specifics of local culture.

At the same time, Šantić writes about his personal troubles – the loss of close and dear people (his mother, brothers Jeftan and Jakov, and brother-in-law Svetozar Ćorović), the health that was a lifetime problem and loneliness that accompanied him to the end.

Drawing themes and imagery from his hometown Mostar, the atmospheric capital of Mediterranean Herzegovina, and its surroundings, his poetry is marked in equal part by the late-Ottoman urban culture in the region, its social distinctions, subdued passions and melancholy, as well as the South Slavic national awareness.

[34] Šantić's poetry is full of emotion, sadness and pain of love and defiance of social and national disempowered people whom he himself belonged.

The ambiance of his love poems include the neighborhood gardens, flowers, baths, fountains, and girls who appear in them are decorated with a necklace, the challenging but the hidden beauty.

In some of his most moving poems Šantić sings about the suffering of those who leave the country forever and go into an unknown and alien world ("Stay here", "Bread").

[12] There he met and socialized with famous poets of that era: Svetozar Ćorović, Jovan Dučić, Osman Đikić, Milan Rakić.