Ordering the World. The Aims of the Art in Zbigniew Herbert's Letters

Abstract

The article is devoted to Zbigniew Herber's thought concerning esthetics. The author interprets the poet's letters written to various people (among others, to Halina Misiołkowa, Czesław Miłosz, Jerzy Zawieyski) and he looks for opinions on art and creativity. He treats the letters not as auxiliary materials for studies on poetry, but as the main subject of his research. He perceives the transition from private letters to writing poetry as a consequence of axiological connections joining both types of expression. He pays special attention to Herbert's care for the consciousness of the aims of the art, stemming from the historical experience. The poet himself defined them in one of the letters as “ordering the world”.