Wobec śmierci : "O balladzie z tamtej strony" Józefa Czechowicza

Abstract

The present article contains an analysis and interpretation of the above-mentioned poem by Jozef Czechowicz. It deals with the central subject of his work and his main obsession, namely with his attempt to see through the mystery of death. The author tries to describe the transformations of the genre model which the title formula is an allusion to. She also traces the presence and the flickering of the Romantic tradition in the poem, she reflects the lyrical represented world, the guiding principle of which is the constant interpenetration of life and death. One of the poem’s characteristic features is the gesture, recurring with striking consistence, of blurring the borders of the described phenomena, and, consequently, of blurring the distinction between “this” and “that” side, and of eliminating the differences between the axiological dimensions of the world. Further on, the author observes there an ambiguity of imagery, uncertain ontological status of the poem’s implied author, and its indefinite generic appurtenance.