“Struggle against Verse”

Abstract The guiding theme of this article is to show selected aspects of the relationship between music and poetry present in the works of Czesław Miłosz, one of the most important poets of the twentieth century and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. My considerations will focus on two main issues. First, I will discuss the musical dimension of Miłosz's poetry, reviewing the source literature devoted to this issue. Then I will present, in a general way, to what extent Miłosz's poetic works are present in contemporary Polish musical culture at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Complementing the theoretical considerations is an analysis of Miłosz's late poem, “Jasności promieniste” [Rays of dazzling light, 1998], and musical works inspired by it. I will devote many of my deliberations to an intriguing musical composition by Mikołaj Górecki, Jasności promieniste. Małe misterium na sopran i orkiestrę smyczkową [Radiating brightness: Little mystery for soprano and string orchestra, 2013]1