Antoni Lange (28 April 1862 – 17 March 1929) was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot (15 languages), writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator.

In France he became familiar with the theories of Jean Martin Charcot, as well as Spiritualism, parapsychology, the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, oriental religions, European and Eastern literature and modern literary criticism.

He rented an apartment at Nowy Świat Street together with Władysław Reymont, a Polish writer and the winner of the Nobel Prize of 1924.

He wrote many novels (Miranda), short stories (Zbrodnia, Amor i Faun), dramas (Malczewski, Wenedzi), essays and poems.

In order to form of the poetry Lange connect to contradictory points of impressionism, romantic sentimentality and experimental theories of Stéphane Mallarmé.

Lange was fond of rare poetic forms: acrostics, dactyls, pantoums, praeludiums, scherzos, canticles and triolets.

He was also the author of many pastorals concerning the metaphysical side of village life; historiosophical songs inspired by the philosophy of Juliusz Słowacki; and exotic genesis mythologies from all over the world (from Mexico to Japan).

Lange was also the author of many lyrical essays presenting original views about the relationship between poet and reader concerning eschatological issues (Thoughts, The Grave).

Lange's short stories from the book W czwartym wymiarze (In the Fourth Dimension, 1912) such as Babunia (Grandma), Rozaura, Lenora, Rebus (Puzzle), Nowe mieszkanie (The New House) and Memoriał doktora Czang-Fu-Li (Dr. Chang Fu Li's Report) are regarded as early examples of science fiction and weird fiction in Poland.

His main sources of inspiration were: the poetry of the Three Bards; the theories of Stéphane Mallarmé; the writings of Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle; Sanskrit epics of ancient India such as Mahabharata or Savitri; and the poetry of the Polish Baroque era, especially metaphysical poets such as Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński and Józef Baka because of their obsession with death.

The most characteristic feature of Lange's writings is the strong influence of Eastern traditions, religions and philosophies such as the Veda, Brahminism and Buddhism.

The Hour written in 1894 was the first prose by Lange, but the short symbolic novel was published in 1895 in the first volume of Poems.

In some ways The Hour is similar to August Strindberg's 1901 drama A Dream Play and The Woman without a Shadow written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1919.

The novel contains many mystical fragments stylized as religious writings, a psalms, a manifesto, greek tragedy and the ode.

It is hermetic and hard to interpret because of its many allusions to the Bible, Kabbalah, Sanskrit writings and ancient Slavic myths.

This form of poetry was mainly used in Romanticism (for example, by George Gordon Byron and Adam Mickiewicz) and was no longer used after the late 19th century.

In pagan Slavic mythology a płanetnik was a guardian spirit of clouds and a lonely dreamer who predicted the weather.

A Song of Płanetnik by Lange tells the story of a young sensitive man who lost touch with reality and set off on the path of solitary existence.

In Lange's philosophy he referred to Thomas Carlyle, Giambattista Vico and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.