Słowacki was born on 4 September 1809 at Kremenets (in Polish, Krzemieniec), Volhynia, formerly part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth but then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine.

[1][2] His father, Euzebiusz Słowacki [pl], a Polish nobleman of the Leliwa coat of arms, taught rhetoric, poetry, Polish language, and the history of literature at the Krzemieniec Lyceum in Kremenets;[3] from 1811 he held the chair (katedra) of rhetoric and poetry at Vilnius Imperial University.

[2][9] In January 1831 he joined the diplomatic staff of the revolutionary Polish National Government, led by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.

[11] In Dresden, Słowacki was well received by the local Polish émigré community, and even welcomed as "the bard of fighting Warsaw.

"[12] In July 1831 he volunteered to deliver messages from the National Government to its representatives in London and Paris, where he heard about the fall of the Uprising.

[2] However, Słowacki's poems, written in the 1820s, were unpopular among his Polish compatriots, as they failed to capture the sentiment of a people living under foreign occupation.

[15][16] Few days later, antagonized by worsening reception of his works among the Polish émigré community in Paris, including sharp criticism from Mickiewicz, Słowacki left on a trip to Geneva, Switzerland.

[17] The French authorities denied him the right to return to France as part of a larger program to rid the country of the potentially subversive Polish exiles who had settled there.

[14] At the same time, he wrote several works featuring Romantic themes and beautiful scenery, such as W Szwajcarii [pl] (In Switzerland), Rozłączenie (Separation), Stokrótki (Daisies) and Chmury (Clouds).

[2][9][14][18] In 1834 he published Kordian, a Romantic drama relating to the soul-searching of the Polish people in the aftermath of the failed insurrection; this work is considered one of his best creations.

[1] In August he left for Greece (Corfu, Argos, Athens, Syros), Egypt (Alexandria, Cairo, El Arish) and the Middle East, including the Holy Land (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Nazareth) and neighboring territories (Damascus, Beirut).

[18] In 1842 he joined the religious-philosophical group, Koło Sprawy Bożej [pl] (Circle of God's Cause), led by Andrzej Towiański.

[20] He was a shrewd investor who earned enough from the investments to dedicate his life to his literary career; he was also able to pay the costs of having his books published.

[20] In the late 1840s Słowacki attached himself to a group of like-minded young exiles, determined to return to Poland and win its independence.

[2] Despite poor health, when he heard about the events of the Spring of Nations, Słowacki traveled with some friends to Poznań, then under Prussian control, hoping to participate in the Wielkopolska Uprising of 1848.

[1] His poem Pośród niesnasków Pan Bóg uderza... (Among the discord God hits...), published in late 1848, gained new fame a century later when it seemed to foretell the 1978 ascent of Karol Wojtyła to the throne of St. Peter as Pope John Paul II.

[2] This grandiose, visionary-symbolic poem, "summary of the entire Romantic culture", Słowacki's masterpiece, weaving together Poland's history and its contemporary political and literary thought, was never finished.

[1] Krasiński, although estranged from Słowacki in the last few years,[7] wrote of the funeral:There were 30 compatriots at the funeral – nobody rose to speak, nobody uttered even one word to honour the memory of the greatest master of Polish rhymes[2]Słowacki's tombstone at Montmartre was designed by his friend and executor of his last will, painter Charles Pétiniaud-Dubos; it did not weather the passage of time well however, and in 1851 a new, similar tombstone was put in place, this one designed by Polish sculptor Władysław Oleszczyński.

[26] He wrote in many genres: dramas, lyrical poems, literary criticism, letters, journals and memoirs, fragments of two novels, and a political brochure; he was also a translator.

[26] Ławski, enumerating the main characteristics of Słowacki's writings, notes first that he was a "creationist", in the sense of creating new meanings and words (many of his characters bear names he invented himself, such as Kordian[29]).

[25] Second, he notes that Słowacki was not only inspired by works of others, from poets and writers to scholars and philosophers, but that his texts were often a masterful, ironic-grotesque polemic with other creators.

[17][31] This Ławski calls "ivy-like imagination", comparing Słowacki's approach to that of an ivy, growing around works of others and reshaping them into new forms in a sophisticated literary game.

[7] Whereas Mickiewicz followed the Messianic tradition and in Konrad suggested that Poland's fate was in the hands of God, Słowacki's Kordian questioned whether his country was not instead a plaything of Satan.

[14][18] While a small circle of his friends talked about his wit, perseverance and inspiration, in popular memory he was a "sickly man of weak character", egocentric, bitter due to his failed rivalry with Mickiewicz.

[33] Through undoubtedly a poet of the romantic era, he was increasingly popular among the positivists and the authors of the Young Poland period in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

[1] He also became respected abroad; a 1902 English language book edited by Charles Dudley Warner noted that "the splendid exuberance of his thought and fancy ranks him among the great poets of the nineteenth century".

[9] In 1927, some eight years after Poland had regained independence, the Polish government arranged for Słowacki's remains to be transferred from Paris to Wawel Cathedral, in Kraków.

[34] Słowacki's interment at Waweł Cathedral was controversial, as many of his works were considered heretical by Polish Catholic-Church officials.

[1][23][34] At the 1927 ceremony, Piłsudski commanded: W imieniu Rządu Rzeczypospolitej polecam Panom odnieść trumnę Juliusza Słowackiego do krypty królewskiej, bo[a] królom był równy.

[34] Gentlemen, in the name of the government of Poland I bid you carry the coffin of Juliusz Słowacki into the royal crypt, for he was the peer of kings.