Mirona Białoszewskiego wiersz o zachowaniu się przy stole

Abstract

Taking up the subject of speech types in the context of Miron Bialoszewski’s poetry, the author was guided by a conviction of usefulness of linguistic observations made by the poet and written down in his poems, and which are helpful in casting light on problems and issues of linguistic nature. Bialoszewski’s poem Retory, interpreted by the author, is a poetic representation of devaluation of one of the official speech types that a small talk is. The poet reveals senselessness and artificiality of small talk at a table through the very act of its record. Means of poetic expressions that were used in the poem expose its commonness and ridiculousness. Białoszewski - as a bright and careful observer of language and its users, debunks actual intentions of speakers, who are interested only in lexical showing off in front of an audience gathered at the table, ignoring the actual purpose of each language utterance that communication is. Showing off with a form of utterance leads not only to annihilation of the very type of speech, but also the language in general - deprived of its actual function it becomes a mixed lot of words that fall on deaf ears and remains unanswered.