Struna światła

by Zbigniew Herbert

Genres: Poetry, Polish Literature

83 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Zbigniew Herbert was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. He was also a member of the Polish resistance movement. Herbert is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers, and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in literature.

Reviews

[Gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

o niebo lepsze niż ten nieszczęsny ,,Pan Cogito”, tak naprawdę przypadło mi do gustu tylko 6 wierszy: Dwie krople, Mój ojciec, Las Ardeński, Wersety panteisty, Kłopoty małego stwórcy, Nike która się waha; reszta może i posiada jakiś potencjał poetycki, ale brak zachowania jakiegokolwiek stałego rytmu mi nie odpowiadała

[Oliwia Szul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niezaprzeczalnie wybitne, ale na poziomie emocjonalnym nie zachwyciły aż tak. Może to jeszcze nie czas na Herberta. Kiedyś do nich wrócę.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A collection that emphasizes ruin and rebirth, destruction and renewal. A stark cycle that is expressed with quiet intensity in a postwar landscape populated with ancient gods as much as the ghosts of the recent past (the latter tending to be more in line with postwar verse than the former, which is why Herbert’s voice is rather unique for its time). But despite the classical references scattered throughout, these are not archaic pastiches; they are vibrant sketches of “the empty realms / of a still unfinished world,” perhaps the essential trait – in Herbert’s verse, as well as in the postwar era – that links the modern and the ancient. We attempt to reconstruct each from memory: one recent and lived, the other distant and imagined. Herbert's poetry – like that of H.D. or Hölderlin, in spirit if not in style – attempts not to bridge this divide, but to suggest there exists no such division at all.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This is a review of the English translation by Alissa Valles)

Oooh love this stuff. Kinda mean and endlessly fixated on the ephemerality of life, totally my bag. I also like literally just this level of allusion- enough for me to go “oh who’s that?” quickly google/read about the legendary guy he’s mentioning and go “ah okay” and finish the poem and it’s good! Good stuff.

[MiriamAntoinette · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5
Nie rozumiem zachwytów. Kilka całkiem dobrych, ale Herbert po prostu nie jest dla mnie.

[Hadrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

herbert to bul bul

[Keymil · Rating 4 out of 5]

kc<3

[Matyldzia]

Ehh, kiedyś tu wrócę

[Jessica Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite authors and poets. He revives history and mythology in his analyses of the present and is both a classic poet in his lyricism and retention of the sacred and a very modern poet—ironic and careful and deliberate with language. I think that he, like Krzhizhanovsky, refused to deprive objects of their integrity (the poem "Stool" comes to mind).


RESEARCH THEMES: twentieth-century and contemporary American and Eastern European literature; truth, skepticism, and pluralism; inter- and postwar literature; stories of exile and protest; the effects of the Enlightenment on the 20th century

[kurp · Rating 2 out of 5]

wódz unosił brwi
jak buławę
skandował: ani guzika

śmiały się guziki:
nie damy nie damy chłopców
płasko przyszytych do wrzosowisk