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 article chronicles the travails of Zbigniew Herbert during the process of writing his short prose piece depicting the image of the mythological Narcissus. An analysis of the extant versions of the manuscript serves as a telling illustration of how multivariate the reinterpretation of this myth can be. In the laboratory of his notebook, Herbert experimented with multifarious avenues of such conceptual reimagining. Those of Herbert’s texts about Narcissus which have actually been released in print are only narrowly reflective of the enormous scope of his protean creativity in the deconstruction and transformation of the canonical version of this Greek myth.

This paper sets out to address issues relating to the reception of Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry and essays, and the scope here is bookended by his debut collection of poetry at one end and most recent commentaries and reviews by researchers and critics on the other. This overview of the scholarship which has come to be referred to as “Herbertian studies” extends its coverage to changing styles of reading, issues pertaining to aesthetics and beliefs, axiological dimensions, applied research methodologies, and interpretative angles. This outline of the history of the perception of Herbert’s legacy is organised chronologically, thematically and notionally. The analysis in hand focuses on key monographic papers, comprehensive studies, and reviews illustrating the order of the multiplicity of approaches and dimensions of analysis; furthermore, it sheds light on the variety of styles and methods of reading and chronicles the extended tradition of attempts at examining such works’ content and messages. The sheer number of such publications testifies to the popularity of Herbert’s output in this respect. The analysis of particular poems serves here as the point of departure for observations of a more general nature: existential and metaphysical interpretations are placed side by side with culturally referenced readings. Still, the catalogue of critical works on Herbert does not seem to be a definitive collection, as, for one, there is no sign of the pool of new interpretations drying up, and moreover, the search for “yet another Herbert” is given impetus by new concepts emerging in the expanding nomenclature in the field of the humanities.

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.

This article is an attempt at a philosophical reconstruction of the idea of eternal life in the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert. The author sets out to discuss the difficulties connected with the ideas of both heavenly (transcendent) eternity, which posits a new mode of existence, and earthly (immanent) everlastingness, based on immortal  fame or instants of eternity intermittently available to humans (in other words, a momentary cessation of the awareness of the passage of time). An example of heavenly eternity is the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the body; according to Herbert, both possibilities signify a radically novel (perfect and infinite) mode of existence, which is totally alien to human (imperfect and finite) nature. This is why man does not desire an eternity of this kind, as it would entail a transformation of his nature into a different, non-human (divine, angelic) being. A paradigmatic example of earthly eternity can be found in profound experiences (such as aesthetic contemplation of beauty), when the contemplating subject loses the consciousness of the destructive power of time, or even of his own eventual demise, deluding himself for a moment that his being is everlasting. Herbert seems to embrace a third way, which is the way of the sceptics, who do not believe in either kind of eternity,  consequently living in a state of permanent suspension between the two other ways.