Jesienny deszcz — jesienny płacz. Między muzyką a poezją (Verlaine i Staff)
Streszczenie
At its beginnings poetry was always connected with music. In Ancient Greece poetry
was not only sung, but also danced. Later, the arts separated. However, in Romanticism
music became once more a very important notion for poets. Romantics believed that
music helped to create the landscape of the human soul. For the same reasons, musicality
of poetry fascinated symbolists.
In my article, I am analysing two poems of Paul Verlaine, a French romantic very important
also for the Symbolist mouvement, and a master piece of Young Poland’s Symbolism
and Impressionism poetry by Leopold Staff. As the poets use a number of proceedings
to change their words into music, the three poems are very musical. Taking
into consideration that symbolists believed that music was able to transmit emotional
meanings, the musical form helped them to prepare their readers to come to a deeper
sense.
Not containing any story, all poems are purely lyrical. Each of them evokes autumnal
rain which mix with tears, all poetic personae being extremely sad. The musicality lets
the readers understand deeper their sadness which reflects also their powerlessness, so
famous in the Decadent mouvement. Briefly, thanks to the use of music the poets manage
to draw a beautiful picture of a Decadent soul.