MILOSZ'S WORLD TODAY
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"Gathering Apri cots." He even juxtaposes two poems wh ose eloquence
contradi cts, but then suppli es them w ith an interpretati o n that annihilates
their meaning ["Conve rsa ti o n w ith Jane" and " A Poem for th e End o f the
Century"]. What is dark he illumines, and darkens what is bri ght. The fol –
lowing fragment o f "Capri " is illustrative:
Now I kn ow foo li shn ess is necessary in all our designs, so that th ey
are rea li zed , awkwa rdly and incompl etely.
Togeth er with m y epoch I go away, prepared fo r a verdict, that w ill
count me among its phantoms.
If I accompli shed anythin g, it was only w hen I, a pi ous boy, chased
after th e di sgui ses of th e los t R eali ty.
After th e rea l presence of divini ty in our fl esh and bl ood which are at
the same time bread and w ine,
Hea rin g th e immense ca ll o f th e Parti cular, despi te th e ea rthly law that
sentences memo ry
to
ex ti nctio n.
We ought to have a study o n Milosz's use of prepositi ons and con–
junctions, whi ch introdu ce juxtapositi ons , or the condi ti onal mood like
"if." Some have even become titl es of poems, such as " And Yet," and
"Either-Or." And not with out reason , as he w rites in " A Philosopher's
Home," are hi s indefati ga bl e interes ts aroused by all the "Circumstances
and coincidences, such as are or mi ght have been , all those or ' because ofs,'
'if nots,' and ' if o nlys .'" They activa te meaning, turn it aro und the way a
rapid current swirls sto nes. T hey all ow one to contain , partially at leas t, the
multipli city of phenomena as we ll as the variety of their con ceptual and
arti sti c means of expressio n.
Beyo nd th e eve r-chang in g fo rms o f the river's current, Mi losz
always manages to no ti ce the eternal o r metaphysical dimension of
being. Hi s senses deno te every single grain o f existence. Hi s work
responds mo re and mo re to " th e immense call o f the Parti cul ar, despi te
th e ea rthl y law that sentences memo ry to extin cti o n ." And th e " pious
boy" hidden in him chases indefa ti ga bl y "after th e di sgui ses o f th e los t
R eality."
