Other Slavic Languages: 'Niepokój'
Last Updated August 12, 2024.
Characteristic of Różewicz's poetry are the tensions which enclose his poetic material in a dense weaving: tensions between stories of his own life and instants from others' lives, reflected through biting humor or intense compassion; tensions between his search for values and his desacralization of art; tensions between a particular memory and broad frescoes assembled like surrealist mosaics. The forms of the poems [in Niepokój] also reflect Różewicz's lack of concern for a consistent rhythm: the tone and length of the poems change from page to page, not to mention the use of free verse next to prose poems. But through this poetical wandering which disobeys all the rules of versification, something like a timid confession appears: the poet's glos anonima, his anonymous voice, seeks to become a child's voice again. Short of reaching the promised lands he dreamed of, short of being reconciled with the real world he so often mocked, the poet seeks the eyes, the sensitivity and the freedom of a child in the hope of finding a new beginning for both himself and his poetry. This may well be the final destination of Różewicz's "naked" poetry.
Alice-Catherine Carls, "Other Slavic Languages: 'Niepokój'," in World Literature Today (copyright 1981 by the University of Oklahoma Press), Vol. 55, No. 3, Summer, 1981, p. 498.
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