Poetry
Wiklina
Leopold Staff · 1954
Synopsis
Fifty-nine short poems, deceptively simple, in which a man tried by war looks at what remains, goes back over his own poetry to revise it, and keeps faith in life, nature and art. The collection celebrates neither the regime nor the building projects of the time, and only a few pieces touch on peace and war. The willow of the title evokes, according to Ellina Cichowska, the one on which the exiles of Babylon hung their harps.
Context
The manuscript went to the censors in October 1953, after two years in which the author's books had been unable to appear; printing was completed on 28 December 1953, and the volume came out in 1954 from the State Publishing House. The censors removed its arrangement in cycles and changed the order of the poems. Critics received it very well and compared these verses with those of Tadeusz Różewicz; Czesław Miłosz compared their simplicity to Chinese ideograms. A second edition appeared in 1955.
Who it is for
A slim volume of short poems, in a simple language, which can be read without preparation. No French translation; in English, some of the poems appear in a selection from the last collections.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a turning point in his work, for its value and its novelty, and as a harbinger of the thaw in Polish culture.
Sources for this page 15
The pages consulted to check this page.