Rescue

by Czesław Miłosz

Collecting two of his most celebrated works – Rescue, written in Warsaw in the shadow of Nazi occupation, and A Treatise on Poetry – a momentous history of Poland, told in four cantos – here lie the sharpest fruits of one of the greatest poets of the 20th century: the Nobel Laureate who narrates the rise and fall of nations, who ‘voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts’.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

Czesław Miłosz was a Nobel Prize winning poet and author of Polish-Lithuanian heritage. He memorialised his Lithuanian childhood in a 1955 novel, The Issa Valley , and in the 1959 memoir Native Realm . After graduating from Sigismund Augustus Gymnasium in Vilnius, he studied law at Stefan Batory University and in 1931 he travelled to Paris, where he was influenced by his distant cousin Oscar Milosz, a French poet of Lithuanian descent and a Swedenborgian. His first volume of poetry was published in 1934.

After receiving his law degree that year, he again spent a year in Paris on a fellowship. Upon returning, he worked as a commentator at Radio Wilno, but was dismissed, an action described as stemming from either his leftist views or for views overly sympathetic to Lithuania. Miłosz wrote all his poetry, fiction, and essays in Polish and translated the Old Testament Psalms into Polish.

Awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."

Reviews

[GretchenPhrase · Rating 4 out of 5]

some people say we should not trust our eyes,
that there is nothing, just seeming,
these are the ones who have no hope.
they think that the moment we turn away,
the world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,
as if snatched up by the hands of thieves.

[Christopher Walthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title collection, Rescue, is far better than the second collection, A Treatise on Poetry. The former possesses a naked immediacy and raw power that the latter lacks, since by then Miłosz seemed to be drowning in a suffocating intellectualism. However, as an introduction to his work, this is pretty good.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Den fortjente nok lidt mere opmærksomhed, men anden del var fin

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Song of a Citizen" is the only thing that keeps me from feeling completely insane every time I read the news.

[Mads Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Przysięgałeś, że nigdy nie będziesz
Płaczką żałobną.”

[Yiz County · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find this in the bookshop collections of little white books, get this one! The first collection Rescue is the best poetry I've ever read. Writing it amidst the destruction of Warsaw, it will break your heart. The second, A Treatise on Poetry, being a memorial history of Polish literature, was originally published with 60 pages of footnotes but they are missing here, which makes it difficult to understand. Yet there are some wonderful passages within. I am excited to read more of his works.