Political fulfilment Alecsandri found satisfaction in the advancement of those political causes he had long championed. The two Romanian provinces united and he was appointed minister of External Affairs by Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He toured the West, pleading to some of his friends and acquaintances in Paris to acknowledge the newly formed nation and support its emergence in the turbulent Balkan area. Retreat at Mircești The diplomatic tours tired him. In 1860, he settled in Mircești for what would be the rest of his life. He married Paulina more than a decade and a half later, in 1876. Between 1862 and 1875, Alecsandri wrote 40 lyrical poems, including "Miezul Iernii, "Serile la Mircești, "Iarna," "La Gura Sobei", "Oaspeții Primăverii", and "Malul Siretului." He also dabbled in epic poems, collected in the volume "Legende", and he dedicated a series of poems to the soldiers who participated in the Romanian War of Independence. He also wrote the lyrics of Ștefan Nosievici's march "Drum bun". In 1879, his "Despot-Vodă" drama received the award of the Romanian Academy. He continued to be a prolific writer, finishing a fantastic comedy, "Sânziana și Pepelea," (1881) and two dramas, "Fântâna Blanduziei" (1883) and "Ovidiu" (1884). In 1881, he wrote Trăiască Regele (Long Live the King), which became the national anthem of the Kingdom of Romania from 1884 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1947. Long suffering from cancer, Alecsandri died in 1890 at his estate in Mircești. Politics Alecsandri had an important political career. He was one of the supporters of slave emancipation. He was allegedly antisemitic, although, according to some Romanian historians (including Neagu Djuvara), he had distant Jewish roots. The appearance of the literary stereotype of the "Polish Jew," or Ostjude, in Romanian literature was largely due to Vasile Alecsandri, the most important and most popular writer of the time. The Jew was depicted with sidecurls, and caftan, he used characteristic jargon and was portrayed as having "typical" personality traits — he was an unscrupulous cheat, a profit–hungry usurer, an exploiter and "poisoner" of the peasant. Notes References Attribution: Further reading G. C. Nicolescu, "Viața lui Vasile Alecsandri" Bucharest, 1975 External links Vasile Aleksandri. Winter. Translated by Daniel Ioniţa (audio). 1821 births 1890 deaths People from Bacău People of the Principality of Moldavia Romanian people of Greek descent Romanian people of Jewish descent 19th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Romanian nationalists Romantic poets Neoclassical