Twórczość poetycka Maurycego Gosławskiego

Abstract

Maurycy Gosławski (1802—1834) is today a virtually unknown poet, al though at one time — and especially in the period of the November Insurrection (1830) — his poetry enjoyed great popularity. Viewed from the perspective of one and a half centuries his works would appear to be of interest not only as reflecting certain processes taking place in literature during the eighteen twenties and thirties, but also as an original and valuable contribution to the development of Polish Romantic poetry. In reminding us of the complete writings of Gosławski the author of this book focuses special attention on the problems presented in the genological structure of the works considered, treated as the starting point for further research investigations. The monographic nature of this study is the reason that a chronological system has been taken, and in line with this the particular chapters are devoted to the successive works of the poet, marking the evolutionary stages in his poetic development The first large work written by Gosławski, not taking into account juvenile poetic dabblings, is the poem Podole, representing an interesting attempt at creating a romantic form of the descriptive poem. Starting from certain assumptions recognised as fundamental for this genre, the poet goes beyond the classicist framework of its models. The possibilities for such new formations inherent in the specific genre structure of the descriptive poem were cleverly exploited by Gosławski, consistently remaining in agreement with the requirements of the new trend. The next successive work is the poem Tęsknota (Yearning), written already in the eighteen twenties, but finally completed after the defeat of the November Insurrection. This verse has a complex genre structure in which narrative parts are interwoven with dramatic scenes. In this work, offering a reckoning with the ideals of early Romanticism, the narrator appears as the author of the poetry, aware of his role, unfolding before the reader the actual process of creating the poem and underlining its literary nature. Poezja ulana polskiego poświęcona Polkom (Poetry o f a Polish uhlan dedicated to Polish women) is a cycle of verses by Gosławski, himself a participant in the November Insurrection, and forms a logical linking of the whole, the common feature of which is the identity of the presented world and also a common begetter: the poet-soldier. The Romantic postulation of the agreement between poetry and deeds is expressed here with the conviction that deeds become the manifesto and the fulfilment of the truths pronounced with the poetic word. Describing Poland’s role in these verses as the „bulwark of freedom”, in conjunction with the sanctification of the actual conception of freedom and the fight undertaken in its name, is a consequence of accepting a messianic vision of the world and of history. Gosławski’s lyrics of the Insurrection time were thus an important link in the development of the idea of Polish national messianism. Gosławski’s next poem, entitled Odstępca albo renegat (Apostate or renegade) was written after the defeat of the November Insurrection, viewed from the perspective of life in emigration, as one of the works in the „reckoning with the past” trend. This poem, depicting the process of collapse of the national romantic myths, but also the mechanism of birth of new myths, is at the same time a poem on the development of Romantic awareness. In the last of the poems, given the title Banko (Banco), the tide of the principal stream leads unerringly to shattering, by means of irony, of the myth of romantic love, and to questioning the authenticity of feeling and the serious importance of the experiences of heroes. This work also contains a chapter which is an ironic picture of the November Insurrection and its leaders. This attitude adopted by the narrator towards the presented world and the way he distances himself from the heroes of the poem, and again the open nature of the composition, are important qualities that bring this work closer to the Romantic digressive poem genre.