Abstract: | The book consists of 5 studies devoted to early poetry by Franciszek Zabłocki and poems
by Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin created at the beginning of his literary path and later on. The
subsequent parts outline a multi-dimensional parallel between both of them, taking into consideration
biographic conditions of their relationship, common experiences and literary environment,
social circle in which the began their career, as well as similarities and differences
between their working solutions reflected in the usage of selected literary motives. The analytical
part of the book was preceded by a long introduction outlining the relations between the
two poets, their life situation, beginnings of activity in the capital, as well as connections with
Adam Naruszewicz and cooperation with “Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne”.
The first chapter discusses a poetical documentation of a very strong (especially in the
early years) friendship between Kniaźnin and Zabłocki, and coworkers of duke Adam Kazimierz
Czartoryski. The analysis of poems makes their acquaintance, experiences of their
private life, the literary workshop and the attempts to a poetical and financial independence
closer.
Considerations on dedication by Zabłocki, made in the subsequent study, cover a detailed
analysis of his early poems addressed to Andrzej Młodziejowski, Czartoryski dukes and
Kniaźnin. They reveal the poetics of ascriptions reflected in the poems, appelative and laudative
forms typical of these works, as well as show the process of a gradual departure and independence
from the patron, and transmission to the circle of the capital theatre and
closeness to the king.
The third part of the book is related to the nameday poems, known in French as “bouquets”
in the second half of the 18th century. The starting point for the analysis of occasional
poems by Zabłocki and Kniaźnin is a characteristic of tendencies present in the process of
shaping this type of poems written by, among others, Adam Naruszewicz, Franciszek
Karpiński, and Józef Epifani Minasowicz, all being recognized poets at that time. Considerations
aim at capturing the principles of composing these poems, and ways of using motives
characteristic of them.
The fourth chapter concentrates on diversified and metaphorical perspectives of the
oneiric subject-matter in poems by Kniaźnin. Dream is being observed as a co-creating element,
and, frequently, as organizing poetical images created especially in his early works,
mainly in Erotyki. The poems under investigation involve elements from the oneiric sphere
performing the function of the motive, revealing mainly the author’s linguistic skills and creativity, as well as the fragments treating about the compositional shape of works, in the form
of narration consisting in a description of a dreamed story.
The heavenly trails present in the title are connected with the motives elaborated on in
the fifth chapter, a comparative study devoted to the images of heaven, moon, stars, sun and
other phenomena and astral objects included in the early poetry by Zabłocki as well as the
earlier and further one by Kniaźnin. What is being considered concentrates on the poetical
concretization of the heavenly trail in the poems by both of them, on the artistic shape and
functions of the references to this sphere, as well as on the characteristic features (similarities
and differences) of the literary workshop of the poets-friends, visible in the way of using concrete
astral phenomena. The ending, summarizing the whole book, collects particular motives
of the previously built Zabłocki — Kniaźnin parallel. The attention is also paid to late
literary works of the former poet. The postulates presented here concern mainly the edition
of the poetical output of both authors. |