<Статья/ Article>On the ‘lyrical subject’ in Czesław Miłosz's debut poems

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  • <論文>チェスワフ・ミウォシュのデビュー作における〈抒情詩の主体〉について
  • チェスワフ・ミウォシュのデビュー作における〈抒情詩の主体〉について
  • チェスワフ ・ ミウォシュ ノ デビューサク ニ オケル 〈 ジョジョウシ ノ シュタイ 〉 ニ ツイテ

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Abstract

Czesław Miłosz's poetry is generally said to be characterized by its ‘lyrical subject'. Many researchers have associated the ‘I’ in the poem with the poet himself. However, his earliest poems were not taken up to examine this point. This article discusses the ‘lyrical subject’ in his debut poems, “Composition” and “Journey”. At first, in the poem “Composition”, a change from a religious space to a theatrical space can be seen. An important factor in this change of space is the “Christian bridge” （pons christi） from earth to heaven. In the religious space, now that the biblical “flood” is foreseen, the “bridge” suggests the expectation of salvation by God, but its salvation cannot be realized. This “Duality” is also demonstrated by the “bridge”. In such a situation, Miłosz tries to make people realize their own depravity by showing them the history of man since “Genesis” in order to seek “salvation”. Secondly, I pointed out that in the poem “Journey”, the place where ‘we’ should live changes from vertical space to horizontal space. It was also confirmed that this poem also shows a ‘Duality’ in the future of ‘we’. Next, focusing on the form of this poem, I confirmed that this poem （and the poem “Composition”） shows a lack of punctuation and “a lack of conventional versification”. These structural features of the poems are connected with its content. The poet thinks that reading of formulaic poetry in which nature is the object of description is no longer beneficial to reality. These views overlap with the poet's later interest in the avant-garde. Third, based on the above considerations, I addressed the question of the ‘lyric subject’ of poetry. In two poems, the ‘I’ is not a complete individual, but a marginal being who belongs to the group ‘we'. The ‘I’ alone foresees the approaching flood and “Duality” and must tell ‘we’ the desperate future. Miłosz writes a poem without rhyme, in so doing he informs ‘I’ of the approaching flood, and commands ‘I’ to lead ‘we’ into a hopeful world. In the two poems, ‘I', ‘we’ and poet Miłosz appear as ‘lyrical subjects’ and create a vivid polyphony of speech.

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