An Interpretation of the Cycle of the Songs or Threnodies from Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in Relation to the Tradition of Czarnolas

Abstract

The paper analyzes the cycle Songs of Threnodies from Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter selected from the collection of Pious Songs written by Wacław Potocki. It characterizes how these works variously refer to the tradition of Czarnolas and how they are placed in the trend of landowner's poetry. The paper stresses, however, the basic difference of Potocki's poetry and his reluctance (as shown in the works under consideration) to write human existence in the rhythm of nature. According to the author, Potocki exposes in the Songs or Threnodies how the sensualist Baroque paradigm exhausts itself, its lyrical non-productivity, and ultimately the inadequacy of the language of literary tradition in view of the need to express an individual and tragic experience.