He was born in Gałęzowo (in the Lublin region) on the 31st of December, 1771, and died in Piotrowice on the 7th of March, 1856. He was educated in Lublin and Zamość, and was employed in the Lublin Bar until 1792. During the Kościuszko Uprising he served as the secretary of the Regulatory Commission in Lublin. He was among the most influential personages in the era of the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland, serving in numerous institutions and holding, among others, the post of the secretary of the General Council of the General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland (1812), director of the General Administration Department of the Committee of Internal Affairs (from 1821). In 1829 he became a castellan senator of the Polish Kingdom. He held a seat on the Society of Friends of Sciences and on the short-lived ‘X’s Society’ which rallied the adherents of classicism. As the leading representative of classical poetry in that period, Koźmian became the most active critic of the Romantic movement, and especially of Adam Mickiewicz himself, whom he repeatedly blamed for all the political setbacks experienced by the Poles. Another manifestation of his conservative views was also his hostility towards the idea of insurgency on the eve of the November Uprising, for which he was condemned by the Sejm in 1830. However, he remained true to his choices in both outlook on life and art to the very end of his life. He is the author of two narrative poems: Ziemiaństwo polskie (1839) and Stefan Czarniecki (1847). His numerous lyrical pieces, including odes which are perfect examples of the genre, were published posthumously in a volume entitled Różne wiersze (1881); other writings were collected in Pisma prozą (1888).