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Mil osz's presence is not even the presence of the greates t poet of the twen–
ti eth century, or of one o f the three main pillars o f Po li sh poetry, next to
Jan Kochanowski and Adam Mi cki ewi cz.
More precisely, Mil osz's influ ence does not derive fr om an imposition
o f aes theti c paths or themes or probl ems (a fter all , every poe t has his own
subj ects and obsessions), nor from the sugges ted pro fundi ty and intensity
of hi s experience and thought o r broad knowl edge. Instead, one has to
speak about the va rio us forms o f hi s presence, about hi s va ri o us ro les. Only
th e unusual sum of these consti tutes Milosz's presence. But at various
moments in Poli sh hi story and in Poli sh literature, Mil osz's work was a
source of many lessons and insights, in three odd stages fo rced by the hi s–
tory of Poland.
First, in the thirties he was a free poet in a fi'ee country. But then the
paranoi a began. In the second stage, he was an undergro und poet publi sh–
ing hi s poems in the postwar years. From then until he left the country he
maintain ed poeti c freedom within th e framewo rk o f a totalitari an system.
And finally, for a few decades, emigrati on-the bitter fa te of a poet who
did not exist in the literature of hi s language. T hi s absence was broken by
the Nobel Prize, after whi ch the autho riti es could no longe r pretend that
Mil osz the poet did not exist. But Mil osz's presence becomes " normal,"
like that of every other livin g classic, o nl y after 1989.
Each of these stages demanded a different kind o f presence, delineated
other sphere of influence, communi cated different inspirati ons and differ–
ent models.
In
the thirti es, th e youn g Milosz was th e trenchant poet o f a
tragic epoch in transition , a poe t- proph et, warning o f global ca taclysm, a
scholar and judge of hi story. More significant and longer-l as ting than
Mil osz's Ca tas trophic phase is hi s poe ti c vi sion o n a grand scale with its
multipl e dimensio ns of hi story-a vision with hi sto ri cist, eschatologica l,
and metaphysical perspective. Th e tone o f hi s poe try is grave, even when
using irony. And he beli eves in th e gravity and di gni ty of the poe ti c word .
Mil osz the prophet is at th e same time analys t, scholar, and morali st. Thi s
poetry brings him closer to th e the grea t nineteenth -century Poli sh poet
No rwid. In Milosz's hi stori cist poetry, there is a visibl e ethi cal position
and a C hri stian foundati o n based o n the va lu es o f truth and justice. But
he is also a scholar of evil , the perennial element in human hi story, and a
Manichean. And a judge and critic-full o f irony and insight into hi s own
peopl e and their traditi ons. Later hi s di stance enabl es a sober, acute vision
and augury, and acquires anoth er dimension: emigre di stance. Playing the
traditional rol e of a Poli sh poet, Mil osz simultaneously rebels aga inst it. He
rebels, particularly against the R omanti c stereotype of a poet- bard , a leader.
He also steers cl ea r of parti sa n verse. But, during martial law, apoc ryphal
Milosz poems appea red, anti cipating hi s voice.
