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The Witness of Poetry (The Charles Eliot…
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The Witness of Poetry (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) (edition 1984)

by Czeslaw Milosz

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Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature, reflects upon poetry's testimony to the events of our tumultuous time. From the special perspectives of "my corner of Europe," a classical and Catholic education, a serious encounter with Marxism, and a life marked by journeys and exiles, Milosz has developed a sensibility at once warm and detached, flooded with specific memory yet never hermetic or provincial. Milosz addresses many of the major problems of contemporary poetry, beginning with the pessimism and negativism prompted by reductionist interpretations of man's animal origins. He examines the tendency of poets since Mallarmé to isolate themselves from society, and stresses the need for the poet to make himself part of the great human family. One chapter is devoted to the tension between classicism and realism; Milosz believes poetry should be "a passionate pursuit of the real." In "Ruins and Poetry" he looks at poems constructed from the wreckage of a civilization, specifically that of Poland after the horrors of World War II. Finally, he expresses optimism for the world, based on a hoped-for better understanding of the lessons of modern science, on the emerging recognition of humanity's oneness, and on mankind's growing awareness of its own history.… (more)
Member:brother.almond
Title:The Witness of Poetry (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)
Authors:Czeslaw Milosz
Info:Harvard University Press (1984), Edition: Reprint, Paperback
Collections:Your library
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Tags:poetry, essay

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The Witness of Poetry by Czesław Miłosz

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After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, Czeslaw Milosz was invited to give the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard, a series of six lectures on poetry. Milosz's talks centered on the historicity of Polish poetry before, during, and after World War II. His contention is that Polish poetry has more ingrained history than most other poetry because the Polish language has not changed all that much since the sixteenth century. The Renaissance poetry of Jan Kochanowski is just as readable today as the post-War poets. Because of its indelible mark of the psyche of the country, Milosz goes into some depth on World War II and its impression of the poetry of Poland. The sheer enormity of it all left most writers speechless for a long time, but when they did write, they employed the heft of all the history of Poland. These lectures are a quick but very enjoyable journey through the history of poetry. ( )
  NielsenGW | Aug 2, 2010 |
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Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature, reflects upon poetry's testimony to the events of our tumultuous time. From the special perspectives of "my corner of Europe," a classical and Catholic education, a serious encounter with Marxism, and a life marked by journeys and exiles, Milosz has developed a sensibility at once warm and detached, flooded with specific memory yet never hermetic or provincial. Milosz addresses many of the major problems of contemporary poetry, beginning with the pessimism and negativism prompted by reductionist interpretations of man's animal origins. He examines the tendency of poets since Mallarmé to isolate themselves from society, and stresses the need for the poet to make himself part of the great human family. One chapter is devoted to the tension between classicism and realism; Milosz believes poetry should be "a passionate pursuit of the real." In "Ruins and Poetry" he looks at poems constructed from the wreckage of a civilization, specifically that of Poland after the horrors of World War II. Finally, he expresses optimism for the world, based on a hoped-for better understanding of the lessons of modern science, on the emerging recognition of humanity's oneness, and on mankind's growing awareness of its own history.

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