LEOPOLD STAFF
Staff's work (The writer lived in the years 1878 – 1957) occupies a unique place in the history of Polish literature. In the poems published by a dozen or so volumes of poems (He made his debut in the period of young Poland, He was active in the interwar period, He also wrote after the last war) we will find testimonies of his constant search, Evidence of vitality and openness to new currents of this lyrics, Attempts to transfer the most outstanding achievements of Western literature to Poland, mainly French poetry.
Through Staff, Polish poetry has acquired a few mental and artistic tendencies of the West, as if it was constantly associated with Europe with new threads. It was also a poet, who was able to combine innovation with the active one harmoniously, A creative relationship with tradition, references to the experience of older poets generation. He always remained the original writer, having its own poetic language and imaging methods, Individual attitude to reality changing for decades. No wonder then, that many poets considered him their patron – For example, Tadeusz Różewicz, creators of Skamander.
Staff was consistently a uniform poet, he wrote in a clear way, distant from the disappointment of young Poland lyrics. He was probably the last poet of the great measure, which, after the romantics and Asnyk, developed the out -of -fashionable patriotic themes in modernism, social, to which Polish readers have accustomed its great predecessors.
The poetic achievements of Staff during the Young Poland period consist of seven volumes of poems. The poet debuted after 1900 year, When modernist moody patterns have been fully formed, pessimistic in the tone of poetry. Younger poets had to look for new solutions -staff found inspiration in Nietzsche's thought, his concepts of a joyful man (beautiful, full of internal power, great dreams, a statuesque strongman who is a denial of the decadent) described in Typo, it is a ZoroStra. The poet appealed simultaneously to h. Bergson talking about life as unlimited freedom, He also did not radically reject the influence of slightly older poets, First of all, Jan Kasprowicz. He tried to write about the individual states of the spirit, feelings and at the same time express common content, universal.
Franciscanism – literary direction, which referred to the worldview of Saint Francis of Assisi. W 1892 year, a translation was issued in Poland (just made by L. Bracket) anonymous, full of unique charm, Flowers' works and. Francis. This song reminded about the Franciscan ideals of love, forgiveness, unification of man with nature, the joy of life (also the poor), simple and beautiful forms of religiosity. The ascetic poetics of Franciscan based on simple forms modeled on flowers…, She avoided metaphors, hyperbole, it even approached the colloquial style, discursive statements.
Praise, The impression of unity with the world of nature – These are the features combining Staff lyrics with Franciscanism. However, Staff has never been a writer of one tendency, simplified image of the world, Hence the dark tones among Franciscan shots, mysterious, Metaphysical questions about the sense of human being. Among other things, dreams were in the lyrics of the author of the blacksmith about the beauty of life (often celebrated, differently perceived), They were an alternative to decadent pessimism, voids, confusion. At the same time, Staff remained a poet very deeply rooted in European culture, referring to both its ancient foundations, and Christianity, the poet of universal content, values, images not closely related to the native ones, Polish problems and ideas about the world. That's probably why his poetry is going through the time of passing time so well, does not lose its relevance, is the so -called live tradition.