Branko Radičević was born in Slavonski Brod in 1824 and completed his schooling in Zemun, Sremski Karlovci and Timisoara. In 1843 he enrolled in a law school in Vienna but later gave it up. The Radičević family’s friendship with Vuk Karadžić helped Branko gain admissionto the circle of Vuk’s associates and friends. Branko Radičević wrote love and patriotic poems and after becoming ill he started to write elegies. He published his first collection of poems in 1847.
When the revolutionary fervour swept the Habsburg Monarchy, Radičević left Vienna and lived in various towns in Srijem. He visited the Principality of Serbia on several occasions but the authorities expelled him from Belgrade for fear that his presence could incite unrest among school youths.
At that time Branko started developing tuberculosis. Upon return to Vienna in 1849 he enrolled in medical school but continued to write literature and published a book of poetry in 1851. He died two years later in Vienna. Posthumously, in 1862, his father published his third book of poetry.
Along with Đuro Dančić, Branko Radičević was the most devoted follower of Vuk’s Serbian language grammar reform and the introduction of the vernacular language in literature. His best known work is the poem Students’ Goodbye in which he eulogised Mt Fruška Gora, schoolboy games and pranks. Branko was the first to bring dominantly lyrical motifs and moods to the Serb national literature. These poems were mostly about joys and beauty of youth, although a lot of his poetry were elegies. Apart from lyrical poetry, Branko also wrote two epic poems.