Fall, a victory? The January Uprising in Norwid’s opinion (translated by Tadeusz Karłowicz)

Abstract

The article is concerned with Norwid’s critical opinions connected with the January Uprising. The period preceding it, abounding in great patriotic-religious demonstrations in Warsaw, was considered by the poet as a very positive and by all means original one. On the other hand, he thought that the very uprising and its course was a secondary act, devoid of logic and aim. The author of Fulminant repeated his judgments, sometimes harsh ones, in the memorials, letters and poetical works that he wrote at that time. His critical opinions of the low level of the insurrectionist press, or the unwilling participation of the Polish intelligentsia in the insurrectionist actions, were not always just and true. In many cases Norwid simply did not accept historical facts. Maybe it was his personal traumas of an underestimated, or even rejected poet, that were voiced in this way. The attitude of a prophet shouting in the wilderness was a temptation that was difficult to resist. The awareness of his own mission, the imperative that he should proclaim the truth, encouraged Norwid to assume uncompromising stances. He tried to render the position of alienation, or even of rejection by referring to Sophocles’  legendary figure, Philoctetes, bit by a venomous snake and left by the Greeks on the island of Lemnos. The writer’s numerous press articles written in the period of the Uprising will be those magic, but unable to reach the target, arrows shot by Philoctetes.