The group was initially closely related to the
Pro Arte et Studio literary monthly and the
Pod Picadorem (
Picador) Café in
Warsaw. In 1920 it created its own publication, the
Skamander monthly, though its members also collaborated with
Wiadomości Literackie (Literary News) and other newspapers. The young poets were heavily influenced by
Leopold Staff and other
neoromantic poets. Their main aims were to break the links between
history and poetry and to end the nationalist and patriotic functions of Polish poetry. They also emphasized the need to restore poetry to the common people by returning to everyday-language usage in poetry, including
colloquialisms,
neologisms and
vulgarisms. Finally, the
Skamandrites (
Skamandryci) emphasized the beauty of everyday life and of all forms of life generally, including the biological side. In contrast to the basic aims of the late-19th-century
Young Poland movement, Skamander's members eschewed semi-mythological heroes and protagonists, replacing them with common people. In contrast to the contemporary
Awangarda Krakowska (Kraków Avant-Garde) movement, they saw themselves as continuers of Polish literary traditions, especially those of
romanticism and neoromanticism. Apart from the movement's five chief members, several lesser-known poets and critics adhered to its principles. They included
Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna,
Stanisław Baliński,
Gabriel Michał Karski,
Światopełk Karpiński,
Jerzy Paczkowski,
Karol Zawodziński and
Wilam Horzyca. ==See also==