released 8/16/2024

Readers often miss the deeper themes in the late poet Czesław Miłosz’s work, says professor Roger Lundin, because they focus instead on his political reputation. As Lundin discusses those themes and reads from Miłosz’s work, he notes that Miłosz’s career spanned seventy years — a fact evidenced in the publication of New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 in 2003 — only a portion of the writing from which encompasses political themes. Instead of merely praising ideologies above all else in his poetry, he chronicled the particulars of life. He understood the work of the poet (and poetry) as that of bearing witness to the ordinariness and goodness of life, to the beauty of creation and cultural memory. Miłosz (1911-2004), who was born in Vilnius and died in Krakow, lived outside of his homeland for most of his adult life. Consequently, notes Lundin, his poetry bears the stamp of the longings and sensibilities unique to those who have known exile. Lundin reads one of Miłosz’s poems that testifies to his dedication to the Polish language while in a foreign land, “My Faithful Mother Tongue.” In addition to demonstrating that Miłosz paid tribute to his native language in his poetry, it also captures Miłosz’s understanding of the balance between the urgency and importance of the poetic task, and a realistic humility about the capacity of the poet. Miłosz knew people need order and beauty in the midst of misfortune; while the poet is not capable of eradicating misfortune, he can provide measures of order and beauty by setting “little bowls of color” before a language.

43 minutes

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