Jak połamana „olbrzymia szablica”… O patriotyczno-politycznej symbolice Wisły w literaturze polskiego romantyzmu

In 1921, an outstanding literature historian and literary critic Wacław Borowy published an exquisite several dozen-paged study Wisła w poezji polskiej (Vistula in the Polish poetry). It the study – “having examined one after another” poems dedicated to the “queen of Polish rivers” (or at least mentioning it more broadly) that appeared in our literature within the span of about four hundred years: from the 16th century to the first two decades of the 20th century – the author concluded that “Vistula poetry” reached its magnificence “with the Romantics who considered love towards nature as one of the basics of their literary theory”. As can be seen through an analysis of applicable works, the renowned literary expert recognised “love towards nature” to be the origin of the Romantics’ fascination with “the Vistula theme”, and emphasised that very motif – which can be defined as an emotional-aesthetic one. From the point of view of an idea historian a different motif – a patrioticpolitical one – should be considered more interesting and definitely more important. Therefore, this text focuses on that matter and discusses the title issue based on an analysis of works of such Romantic authors as Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, Cyprian Norwid, Seweryn Goszczyński, Maurycy Gosławski, Konstanty Gaszyński, Karol Baliński, Ignacy Danielewski, Roman Zmorski, Teofil Lenartowicz and Edmund Wasilewski.