A Cry Through the Borderland

Abstract

This text is a result of a completely new interpretation of Józef Czechowicz’s poem przez kresy. Despite earlier interpretations, pointing at the Arcadian nature of the poem, a suspicion of approaching catastrophe is shown as the main topic. Czechowicz shows it by using a special kind of the symbolism, called by T. S. Eliot an objective correlative. Then analysis of the versification reveals a specifically two-levelled structure of the poem: each element of a describing part of text has its own metapoetical correlative. It allows to assume that the most important statement of przez kresy is the irreducible difference between language – or poetical word – and the metaphysical experience.