"A Discarded Tire by the Road": Miłosz Settles up with Ginsberg

Jerzy Jarniewicz

Tytuły

Abstrakt

This article discusses Czesław Miłosz’s ambiguous relationship with American beat
and confessional poetry as well as with the counterculture of the 1960s. It focuses
on one of Miłosz’s late poems dedicated to Allen Ginsberg, published in Facing the
River in 1994. The poem, though ostensibly about Ginsberg, is in fact one of the most
confessional poems the Polish poet has ever written, presenting his own life as a failure,
“a discarded tire by the road,” and setting up Ginsberg as an exemplary wiser poet,
“who persisting in folly attained wisdom.” On the one hand, it seems diffi cult not to
see Miłosz and Ginsberg as two very different personalities. On the other hand, Miłosz
saw Ginsberg as the true heir to Whitman, whom he himself had always admired.
The discussion of the poem reveals that Miłosz uses Ginsberg as his own antithesis,
a Yeatsian mask or a Jungian shadow, representing everything that the Polish poet, with
his admitted contempt for any trace of weakness and mental instability, has never been or valued.

This article discusses Czesław Miłosz’s ambiguous relationship with American beat
and confessional poetry as well as with the counterculture of the 1960s. It focuses
on one of Miłosz’s late poems dedicated to Allen Ginsberg, published in Facing the
River in 1994. The poem, though ostensibly about Ginsberg, is in fact one of the most
confessional poems the Polish poet has ever written, presenting his own life as a failure,
“a discarded tire by the road,” and setting up Ginsberg as an exemplary wiser poet,
“who persisting in folly attained wisdom.” On the one hand, it seems diffi cult not to
see Miłosz and Ginsberg as two very different personalities. On the other hand, Miłosz
saw Ginsberg as the true heir to Whitman, whom he himself had always admired.
The discussion of the poem reveals that Miłosz uses Ginsberg as his own antithesis,
a Yeatsian mask or a Jungian shadow, representing everything that the Polish poet, with
his admitted contempt for any trace of weakness and mental instability, has never been
or valued.

Słowa kluczowe

Czesław Miłosz, Allen Ginsberg, counterculture, beat poetry, confessional poetry

Bibliografia

Altieri, Ch. 1984. Sense and Sensibility in Contemporary American Poetry. New York: Cambridge UP.

Ashbery, J. 2008. Collected Poems 1956–1987. Ed. M. Ford. New York: The Library of America.

––––– 2009. Planisphere. New York: Ecco.

Błoński, J. 1987. “Przedsłowie” [Foreword]. Czesław Miłosz. Trzy zimy i głosy o wierszach [Czesław Miłosz. Three Winters and Interpretations of Poems]. Eds. R. Gorczyńska, P. Kłoczkowski. London: Aneks. 59–60.

Cohen, K. 1979. Film and Fiction: The Dynamics of Exchange. New Haven: Yale UP.

Gorczyńska, R. 1992. Podróżny świata. Rozmowy z Czesławem Miłoszem. Komentarze [The Traveler of the World. Conversations with Czesław Miłosz. Commentaries]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

Hall, D. 1979. Remembering Poets. Reminiscences and Opinions. New York: Harper Colophon.

Miłosz, C. 1951. “List półprywatny o poezji” [A Semi-Private Letter about Poetry]. In: C. Miłosz. 1990. Zaczynając od Moich Ulic [Starting from My Streets]. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie.

––––– 1983. The Witness of Poetry. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.

––––– 1990. Świadectwo poezji. Sześć wykładów o dotkliwościach naszego wieku [The Witness of Poetry. Six Lectures About Severities of Our Age]. Warszawa: Czytelnik.

––––– 2003. “Aleksander Wat’s Tie.” In: New and Collected Poems 1931–2001. Trans. C. Miłosz and R. Hass. New York: Ecco.

––––– 2006. Selected Poems 1931–2004. New York: Ecco.

Moore, M. 1994. Complete Poems. New York: Penguin.

Perloff, M. 1998. Frank O’Hara. The Poet among Painters. Chicago: U of Chicago P.

––––– 1999. The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage. Evanston: Northwestern UP.

Pound, E. 1996. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. New York: New Directions.

Tytell, J. 1987. Ezra Pound. The Solitary Volcano. New York: Anchor.

Sharp, W. 1912. “The Sonnet: Its Characteristics and History.” Studies and Appreciations. New York: Duffi eld. 1–70.

Stitt, P. 1983. “The Art of Poetry XXXIII.” Interview with John Ashbery. Paris Review 90, 31– 59.

Zach, J. 2002. Miłosz i poetyka wyznania [Miłosz and the Poetics of Confession]. Kraków: Universitas.

Zaleski, M. 2005. Zamiast. O twórczości Czesława Miłosza [Instead. About Czesław Miłosz’s Oeuvre]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

Informacje

Informacje: Przekładaniec, Numery anglojęzyczne, Issue 25/2011– Between Miłosz and Milosz, s. 133 - 145

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864ePC.13.020.1209

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Tytuły:

Polski:

"A Discarded Tire by the Road": Miłosz Settles up with Ginsberg

Angielski:

"A Discarded Tire by the Road": Miłosz Settles up with Ginsberg

Autorzy

Jerzy Jarniewicz

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2106-4030

Uniwersytet Łódzki, Polska, ul. Narutowicza 65, 90-131 Łódź

Publikacja: 02.08.2013

Status artykułu: Otwarte

Licencja: Żadna

Udział procentowy autorów:

Jerzy Jarniewicz (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

-

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 2878

Liczba pobrań: 1979

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Tytuły

Abstrakt

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Bibliografia

Informacje

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