Cyprian Kamil Norwid (Polish pronunciation: [ˈt͡sɨprjan ˈnɔrvit]; 24 September 1821 – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is more aptly described as a late romantic or an early modernist.

Norwid led a tragic, often poverty-stricken life. He experienced mounting health problems, unrequited love, harsh critical reviews, and increasing social isolation. For most of his life he lived abroad, having left Polish lands in his twenties. Having briefly travelled across Western Europe in his youth, and briefly travelling to United States, where he worked as an illustrator, he lived chiefly in Paris, where he eventually died.

Considered a "rising star" in his youth, Norwid's original, nonconformist style was not appreciated in his lifetime. Partly due to this, he was excluded from high society. His work was rediscovered and appreciated only after his death by the Young Poland movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Today his most influential work is considered to be Vade-mecum, a vast anthology of verse he finished in 1866. Much of his work, including Vade-mecum, remained unpublished during his lifetime.

Cyprian Norwid was born on 24 September 1821 into a family of Polish–Lithuanian minor nobility bearing the Topór coat of arms, in the Masovian village of Laskowo-Głuchy near Warsaw, His father was a minor government official. One of his maternal ancestors was the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John III Sobieski.

Cyprian Norwid and his brother Ludwik Nordwid [pl] were orphaned early. His mother died when Cyprian was four years old, and in 1835 his father also died: Norwid was 14 at the time. For most of their childhood, Cyprian and his brother were educated at Warsaw schools. In 1836 Norwid interrupted his schooling (not having completed the fifth grade) and entered a private school of painting, studying under Aleksander Kokular and Jan Klemens Minasowicz [pl]. His incomplete formal education forced him to become an autodidact, and eventually he learned a dozen languages.

Norwid's first foray into the literary sphere occurred in the periodical Piśmiennictwo Krajowe, which published his first poem, Mój ostatni sonet (My Last Sonnet), in 1840s issue 8. That year he published ten poems and one short story. His early poems were well received by critics and he became a welcome guest at the literary salons of Warsaw; his personality of that time is described as that of a "dandy" and a "rising star" of the young generation of Polish poets. In 1841-1842 he travelled through the Congress Poland with Władysław Wężyk [pl].

In 1842 Norwid received inheritance funds as well as a private scholarship to study sculpture and left Poland, never to return. First he went to Dresden in Germany. He later also visited Venice and Florence in Italy; in Florence he signed up for a course in sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. His visit to Verona resulted in a well-received poem W Weronie [pl] (In Verona) published several years later. After he settled in Rome in 1844, where for several years he became a regular at Caffè Greco, his fiancée Kamila broke off their engagement. Later he met Maria Kalergis, née Nesselrode; they became acquaintances, but his courtship of her, and later, of her lady-in-waiting, Maria Trebicka, ended in failure. The poet then travelled to Berlin, where he participated in university lectures and meetings with local Polonia. It was a time when Norwid made many new social, artistic and political contacts. At that time he also lost his Russian passport, and after he refused to join the Russian diplomatic service, the Russian authorities confiscated his estate. He was also arrested for trying to cross back to Russia without his passport, and his short stay in Berlin prison resulted in partial deafness. After being forced to leave Prussia in 1846, Norwid went to Brussels. During the European Revolutions of 1848, he stayed in Rome, where he met fellow Polish intellectuals Adam Mickiewicz and Zygmunt Krasiński.

During 1849–1852, Norwid lived in Paris, where he met fellow Poles Frédéric Chopin and Juliusz Słowacki, as well as other emigree artists such as Russians Ivan Turgenev and Alexander Herzen, and other intellectuals such as Jules Michelet (many at Emma Herwegh's salon). Financial hardship, unrequited love, political misunderstandings, and a negative critical reception of his works put Norwid in a dire situation. He lived in poverty, sometimes forced to work as a simple manual laborer. He also suffered from progressive blindness and deafness, but still managed to publish some content in the Polish-language Parisian publication Goniec polski and similar venues. 1849 saw several of his poems published, those included among others his Pieśń społeczna [pl] (Social Song). Some of his other notable works from that period include the drama Zwolon [pl] and the philosophical poem-treaty about the nature of art, Promethidion [pl], both published in 1851. Promethidion, a long treatise on aesthetics in verse, has been called "the first important piece of Norwid's writing". It was, however, not well received by contemporary critics. That year also saw him finishing the manuscripts for the dramas Krakus [pl] and Wanda [pl] and the poem Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod (A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem).