Philosophical Motifs in the Poetry of Cyprian Norwid

Abstract

In the poetical form Cyprian Norwid reveals his deep understanding of the fundamental issues of the European philosophical tradition. Therefore the subject of his poetry is both death, inherent in its trivial external manifestations, but also in the menace of  its irreverability, and newly rising life, which the poet depicts in its natural context of an image of young mother and her baby. Figures of young, beautiful women often serve as a pretext for irony directed at deficiencies of social life, anticipating solely glitter and appearances. Feminity in its highest aspects, however, in his output combines beauty and good. Both formal inventiveness and recourse to familiar motives of the Polish country culture, always serve Norwid to present things essential for a man. Profound humanism of his output combines motives which are typical for the European tradition and universal issues. His fascination for the ephemeral, omnipresent beauty of the nature is accompanied by the perspective of infinity, open for each human being. The poet’s emotionalism, thorough and vivid, is the background for his praise of reason, which seeks for the Highest Good along Socratic lines.