Miłosz at Work

Abstract This essay consists of four main parts. The first highlights three critical texts that (in three different ways) promote the study not only of the final, completed work, but also of the creative process leading to its creation. These texts are, in chronological order: “The Philosophy of Composition” by Edgar Allan Poe (1846), “Poets at Work” by W. H. Auden, Karl Shapiro, Rudolf Arnheim, Donald A. Stauffer and, last but not least, Charles D. Abbot (1948), and “The Fluid Text” by John Bryant (2002). In part two, I develop and argue the claim that the approach inspired by the indicated critical texts is worth applying to the poetry of Czesław Miłosz. Namely, I argue that it is interesting and useful to deal with the rough drafts (working holographs) of Miłosz's poems and the trace of the creative process left in them. In the third and fourth parts, I conduct an exemplary analysis and interpretation of the creative process of two selected poems by Miłosz. These are, respectively, “Pory roku” [Seasons] and “Późna starość” [Late old age]. In the summary of my article, I try to draw editorial conclusions and imagine a new edition of Miłosz's poetry, inspired by the work of John Bryant and exposing the fluidity of the text.