On the Shoulders of Giants: Herbert and Milosz: An Essential Dispute (Essay‪)‬

Marek Troszynski in memory of Krzysztof Zaleski The dispute between Herbert and Milosz may be interpreted against the background of one of the major personal disputes in Polish cultural history: the legendary antagonism between Mickiewicz and Slowacki. The polemics between the bards, irrespective of emigrant gossip or scholarly folklore, had a permanent axis, with regard to which the two developed fundamentally different attitudes. The touchstone was their view of the chivalric idea. For Slowacki, it was the universal symbol of humanity, whereas Mickiewicz betrayed that idea in Konrad Wallenrod and caricatured it in Pan Tadeusz. A shade of that old dispute emerges in the polemics between Herbert and Milosz: Herbert' s view is close to Slowacki's apotheosis of the princes of Polish historical memory: the knight Zawisza the Black and the priest Father Marek.