Przemysław Michalski

HOW MUCH CAN ONE SAY? CONFESSIONAL POETRY AND CONFESSIONALISM OF POETRY
This essay probes Miłosz’s attitude to confessional poetry, or rather it examines his stance on confessionalism as a seemingly irremovable element of any poetic utterance. By means of such terms as decorum, the referentiality of poetic language and its usefulness, it demonstrates why Miłosz himself refrained from overtly confessional modes of poetic utterance, drawing too heavily on the poet’s own experiences, which may in turn result in blurred distinctions between biography and literature. One of the reasons why the poet so intensely disliked excessive confessionalism is its intention to describe the speaker’s emotions, while according to the Polish poet, the main task of poetry is to celebrate the dazzling beauty of the outside world, whose existence transcends and surpasses the insignifi cantly small inner world of a troubled psyche. Last but not least, the usefulness of poetry, as Miłosz understood it, is that which enables poems written in diverse countries and epochs to intensify the contemporary reader’s sense of belonging to the large family of the human race.

This essay sets out to examine Miłosz’s attitude towards confessional poetry,
or rather, to examine his stance on confessionalism as a seemingly inseparable element
of any poetic utterance. By means of such terms as decorum, referentiality of poetic
language and its usefulness, I try to show why Miłosz preferred to stay away from
overtly confessional modes of poetic utterance, which draw too heavily on the poet’s
own experiences and may result in blurring the distinction between biography and
literature. One reason why the poet so intensely disliked excessive confessionalism
is that its main purpose is to describe the emotions of the speaker, whereas he felt that
the main task of poetry is to celebrate the dazzling beauty of the outside world, whose
existence transcends and surpasses the insignifi cantly small inner world of a troubled
psyche. Last but not least, the notion of the usefulness of poetry, in his understanding of
the term, is that it makes it possible for poems written in diverse countries and epochs
to intensify the contemporary reader’s sense of belonging to the great family of the
human race.