The romantic stream in Polish literature appeared relatively late -- later than in England and Germany -- about the same time as in France and Russia. The date opening this period is usually assumed to be 1822, when the collection of poems "Ballads and Romances" (Ballady i romanse) was published by Adam Mickiewicz, the future most eminent poet of Polish Romanticism.

Thus, in the 20s of the XIXth century Polish Romanticism was close to European patterns. But because it developed in an enslaved country, in literary activity a stronger accent fell on problems of consolidating the sense of national identity, for instance on the folk and on folklore. And there appeared moral dilemmas related to the fight with the enemies of the Fatherland.

In November 1830 a national uprising against Russia burst out. After its bloody suppression in September 1831 thousand of Poles, including almost the entire intellectual elite, had to emigrate. Those who remained suffered exterminating repression, compulsory incorporation into the Russian army, confiscation of wealth and/or exile to Siberia.

The defeat of this uprising turned out to be a decisive factor in shaping Polish spirituality and patriotic morality. It meant the end of the illusion that Poles were able to regain their independence themselves, and at the same time the beginning of utopian hopes for armed support of such struggle by the nations of Europe. Poles had to make a choice: either to put up with loss of their state or, if not, then to subordinate their life to the ideal of ardent love of their fatherland.

The poetic shape of patriotic stereotypes expressing this "no", entrenched in the collective consciousness, was formed by those who found themselves beyond the borders of their country. In the Polish lands this stream of ideas was obviously much weaker. The invaders stifled passionately all expressions of intellectual life; moreover, there was nobody to kindle it, for people of letters were abroad, as emigrants or exiles.

Paris formed the main center of political life -- and in this peculiar situation the strongest influence on the minds of Poles was literature. Seven factors contributed to its dominant role: the great moral authority that literature gained in Poland even before, the conscious assumption by poets of the role of spiritual leaders of the nation, and the general need for the word, giving hope and showing the way to the future in a free fatherland. This thirst for the poetic word strongly supported the popularization of literary works. In spite of the prohibitions of censors there were smuggled into the country and welcomed the more ardently due to the most severe punishments threatened for their possession. In political lawsuits against Polish conspirators, accusations for reading "prohibited" literature had honorable place.

Such external conditions, mingling poetry with politics, imposed on romantic literature constant contact with present reality, but it also facilitated poets assuming an elevated position as leaders and national bards. This conviction regarding the unusual status of poets harmonized with earlier conceptions of Friedrich Schlegel and other German theoreticians of Romanticism. Conceiving poetry as a synthesis of the arts, as a metascience, they saw it as a way towards a deeper understanding of the world. Poles added here an accent upon its prophetic functions.

After the 1830 uprising and its fall, there was a common sense of despair often leading to madness or suicide. But the uprising left also a memory of a marvelous strain of Poles, a memory of heroism and of liberty achieved for a while. This opened the way to an unusually vivid pride and faith in the power of the nation. All that remained was to wait for a favorable international opportunity.

The general emotional reaction of Poles after the disaster of defeat was, however, analogous to the reaction of Europe after the French revolution: a turn towards history that was supposed to explain things and a tragic sense of events. At the same time it was a manifestation of faith and a turn towards God; history was seen as the realization of His will, of the plans of Providence. Representatives of Polish Romanticism even used biblical motives; they revived the myth of the Messiah as a personal figure, but also as a collective figure of a nation-Messiah who, following Christ’s example, shapes the pattern of sanctity, martyrdom, and resurrection. Thanks to a clear analogy to the situation of Poland, messianic motives in literature became foundational to the historically oriented vision of the romantic poets.

Stylized according to biblical patterns and written with a high, archaic language recalling ecclesiastical texts, The Books sounded a prophecy concerning the future destiny of the world. They announced something of the highest importance for the Polish emigrés: Poland, in reward for its merits and sufferings, would be resurrected. The historical merit of the nation was seen in its continuous readiness for defense of the Christian faith (Poland as the forefront of Christianity -- the crucial argument here was the famous victory of king Jan III Sobieski over the Turks near Vienna in 1683). Mickiewicz saw world history as the site of the struggle of God with Satan, interpreted as the wrestling of liberty with tyranny. This implied also a divine sanction for the strivings for the liberation of his own nation, and for the oppression of liberty which turned out to be contrary to God’s will. Mickiewicz wrote that "the Polish Nation did not die, its body lies in the tomb, and its soul went away from the earth, that is from public life, descending to the abyss, that is to the home life of peoples suffering enslavement in this country and abroad, in order to behold their suffering. And on the third day the soul will return into the body, and the nation will rise, and liberate all nations of Europe from their enslavement".

The life of Christ became in a metaphorical transformation, a figure of the history of the Polish nation. Poland, in turn, was attributed the traits of a chosen nation, a new Messiah of peoples. This idealized image of his own nation set Mickiewicz against a demonized picture of contemporary Europe that -- both in The Books and in his later writings -- constituted a domain of evil, of a fall of faith and liberty, and of a cult of money, ousting ideals of the liberty of nations.

Therefore, the new course of history according to the announcements of The Book, will be traced by the Polish pilgrims, people embodying the tradition of the fight for liberty and then, after defeat, deprived of their fatherland, tested by God to the greatest extent and, by the same token, the closest to persection. "You are among foreigners as apostles among idolaters", claimed Mickiewicz, and, in the "Pilgrim Litany" (verses 18-22) composed for pilgrims in the closing Book, he begged God:

For universal war for Liberty of Nations

We ask you, O Lord!

For arms and national eagles,

We ask you, O Lord!

For a happy death on the battlefield,

We ask you, O Lord!

For tombs for our bones in our land,

We ask you, O Lord!

For independence, integrity, and liberty of our Fatherland

We ask you, O Lord!

This fragment shows an intention, characteristic of The Books, of welding the idea of the liberty of nations with hope for the resurrection of the Fatherland, and draws an image of a Pole that embodies faith and romantic heroism. Mickiewicz’s work was particularly important for the formation of the Polish consciousness. For, from the very beginning of their existence in exile, it endowed their destiny as wanderers with a higher meaning; their spiritual exaltation as apostles of a new faith was, moreover, to be rewarded with rebirth of the fatherland.

An irrational view of the world, a nation-Messiah and an individual usurping absolute power over the world -- such motives today evoke bad memories and associations. After the experience of all kinds of Fascism, of extreme nationalisms, of totalitarian ideologies we tend to be particularly suspicious towards trends apotheosizing the idea of a chosen nation and of a genial individual.

Analogies with contemporary realities, however, are groundless insofar as in that situation -- a group of emigrees in Paris, and a nation without its own state -- such threats simply did not exist. Leadership concerned the sphere of spirit, and the political situation of the epoch meant that, if Poles thought about real action and an armed fight, such Polish Messianism was to be realized according to the ideal: "For your freedom and ours". That is to say, it would have to take the form of participation by Poles in struggles for freedom -- wherever they would be fought. So, in spite of appearances, there was no passage from Messianistic ideas to a nationalistic ideology.

Another problem is much more interesting and has been disputed to this day: the suspicion that romantics were steered by irrational impulses even when they undertook concrete programs of political or armed action.

The providential historical vision was from the beginning accompanied by a very rigid moral codex. Already in his early and very popular poem entitled "To the Polish Mother" (Do matki Polki) Mickiewicz proposed that the rearing of Polish children be shaped from the cradle by the thought of their future martyrdom. Attributes determinating the biography of a Polish patriot were here: perjurious judgment, confinement and forced labor, gallows and only an anonymous place in the memory of future generations.

From that moment, the consciousness of Poles was shaped by a conviction that the idea of national liberty is superior in rank to all artistic ideals, to all individual strivings, to personal life. Because the situation that emerged at that time was to last till 1918, and then after twenty years of independence Poland found itself again under governance of alien invaders, the stereotype of patriotism carved by the romantics has remained actual; it persisted, and was taken up by subsequent generations. The imperative of being faithful to it demanded from those who emigrated a programmatic isolation from the aliens, seclusion in the circle of Polish affairs and the constant application of Polish criteria to European events. Those who remained in the country drew moral imperatives not so much from Messianistic historiosophy, but rather from the situation of life under occupation. But the fundamental dilemma was the same: either compromise or seemingly irrational resistance of the defeated nation against tyranny. The unshakable romantic spirit, when translated into the language of everyday reality, very often meant financial disaster. For conspiratorial activity the invading authorities confiscated manors; refusal to collaborate with the enemy made economic activity impossible. Hence, in the stereotype of a good Pole an indispensable attribute of heroism was contempt for material goods. With patriotism there merged an inclination to all sorts of resistance against state authorities, sabotaging its orders and outsmarting binding laws.

The above remarks, reducing an artistic view of the world to the realm of life, may be read as a suggestion that Polish Romanticism was a peculiar case of a flattening romantic philosophy, turning it into a kind of ideological utilitarianism. This would be a total misunderstanding. Intertwined indeed with patriotic ideology, Romanticism became an authentic inspiration for development of existential conceptions and of the religious thought of future generations. The cause of the Polish nation, the understanding of its spirit and history, became a concrete starting point from which it was possible to grasp the whole historical destiny. 

The interpretative inferences were mutual. In the forties of the XIXth century in his lectures at the College de France in Paris, Mickiewicz spoke about history and the culture of Slavs. He translated his general conception of the wrestling of good with evil in history into the language of contemporary politics and related it also to the duty of fulfilling moral obligations, including those assumed by the countries of Europe towards Poland. On the other hand, the general idea of historical progress implied in the schemas of historiosophy imperatives of action, and the apotheosis of great individuals (of the caliber of Napoleon), as well as of other eminent and inspired Poles.

The hero of Polish romantic literature emerged, as throughout Europe, from existential irresolution, but the configuration of this image was clearly influenced by the contemporary political situation of Poland. Hence personal patterns created at that time are still very attractive for Poles. They associate with them the most appreciated values such as revolt in the name of liberty and truth, enthusiasm, sincerity of feelings, utopian faith in ideals. The violent emotions or despair of romantic heroes may frighten, as well as their lofty egocentrism and folly, but there are some fascinating things: the full concentration of life around one passion, one idea, with the elimination of all stereotypic poses. The great characters of Romanticism are unique figures, impossible to follow; their moral inquietude has such a mighty creative or destructive force because it is lived as if for the first time, incomparable to anything that happened before.

The revolt of romantics -- and of their literary heroes -- was total; it was directed against the whole world and demanded God’s intervention. They found support nowhere, everything seemed to be contaminated, everything bore traits of lies and evil. They saw the world as a dialectical intertwining of opposites: ugliness is inseparable from beauty, pain from delight, hatred or indifference from love, despotism from liberty. Through everything there was manifested the romantic striving towards the Absolute, i.e., towards fullness of cognition, love, liberty, and human limits. What if they conceived the world as an infinite being, and rejected all restraints imposed by rationalists in the domain of cognition; what if the human condition does not allow one to trespass certain towards, if it is so difficult to go beyond limits of reason, if our knowledge is so fragmentary and unclear when it is acquired by means of intuition and imagination. Death or folly put an end to such awakened human desires.

To strike skies as a copper shield

To penetrate the blue with crimes

Rhapsody I, Hymn II, verses 331-333.

Death, -- and crime -- the tragedy of romantic heroes lies in the insoluble conflict between the vision of good and the reality of evil in that man is inescapably involved through his actions. Should we then consent to destiny and give up revolt? No, for revolt, life full of passion, pushes history ahead and, in spite of the dangers to which it exposes man (or maybe thanks to them?) it gives meaning to individual existence. Goals are unattainable, it is not possible to enter into fullness of freedom and truth, but in the passion of approaching them lies man’s divinity. How characteristic is the fact that none of the romantic heroes longs for "normality" -- there is no desire to exchange irresolution and suffering for peace of heart.

Equally ardent as their existential revolt was the protest of romantics against their contemporary state, against the world in which they lived. They fought for survival of the ideals they professed. In their desperate resistance to change in the world we perceive there was fear that the new Europe that emerged before their eyes in the first half of the XIXth century would be a spiritual dwarf, that in insanely chasing after progress people would forget ideals, that they would not notice the disappearance of liberty, love and nobility of spirit. I mentioned Mickiewicz’s critique of contemporary Europe; as a counterbalance to the materialistic world. He also shows human genius, able to rule and conduct peoples and to shape the future. The example of Napoleon gave this commitment concrete content. "One man, elevated by his own power, subjugating numerous peoples" -- so Mickiewicz saw his unaccomplished mission. The example of Napoleon was significant in two ways: it showed that an individual distinguished by great spirit can shake the world and that this internal power can manifest itself in everybody, also in someone who is not elevated above others by means of birth or fortune.

For Poles, their faith in the power of individuals for moving peoples and changing history was particularly important. The model of a romantic hero promoted in the Polish literature was enriched with traits necessary for national heroes who constantly keep in mind one superior value -- the Fatherland. Hence, existential dilemmas were subdued to patriotic motives. The heroes found the meaning of their lives in undertaking service to the nation. Outstanding individuals, even aware of their distinctness, identified their will with the good of the others; individualism was overcome in this unusual way. The destiny of these heroes was determined by the political situation of the country -- their biographies had to be tragic as long as Poland had not regained freedom. The dramatic character of their life had its source, not so much in personal problems, as in reasons external to the subjects.

It was through the figures of romantic literary heroes that Poles conceived their most recent history: not heroes of antiquity, but participants of the last uprising, popularized in romantic poems, became their models. In these poems there appeared, as if in spite of the principal idea of Romanticism, elements of noble teaching, propagating patterns of life, or rather patterns of dying. These suggested how to offer one’s life, and how to die for the fatherland.

Lonely romantic heroes found the meaning of their lives. They suffer, but their suffering serves Poland. The common and noble goal allowed people of that epoch to identify with literary heroes, and provided poets with examples taken from life. In reality and in books heroes conspired, struggled and died, peaking and pining for the fatherland, and went crazy from despair after its loss.

A way of escaping from personal distress, of overcoming it, became the subordination of life to patriotic ideals. Consequently, the absolutization of patriotism required a faith, which was irrational at that time, in the resurrection of the fatherland. Only coupling these hopes with religion, with a patriotic functionalization of the Christian attitude, could sanction them. Only God (and a providential interpretation of his will) could enable Poland to enter the future map of the world as an independent state. No rational premises gave any basis or support for such hopes.

- of Mickiewicz, who in his youth passed through a school of rationalism,

In their mature years in exile they all turned to God as a guarantee of liberty and historical justice.

It was an ardent faith, but at the same time very controversial in terms of ecclesiastical orthodoxy. It attributed to religion a very important place in the frame of national consciousness, but as if at the price of being assured that God became particularly fond of Poland, and at the price of a rather arbitrary interpretation of the model of Christ’s life. This second element was particularly important because of the ethical patterns were spread in works of romantic poets. These presented Christ as a way of sacrifice, but above all as a way of action directed towards liberty and for the fatherland.

A precise realization of these moral imperatives became the next national uprising against Russia that burst out in January 1863. Since there was no Polish army, civilians took up arms and the struggles were fought exclusively in a guerilla manner. The uprising lasted for over a year, and it was an insurrection of desperados, condemned to defeat from the beginning. People fought, with a scanty hope for, and from, Europe, with a romantic faith that their death would perpetuate in Poles’ hearts the thought of an independent fatherland. For in the future, as wrote Kornel Ujejski, the poet of this uprising:

When the time comes

Tomorrow as yesterday

We will turn our dust into powder

and clay into lead

And there will be fires rising from the ashes!

The last strophe

The influence of Romanticism on the artistic activity of the next generations is just one aspect of its existence in the tradition. Another much more controversial aspect, is the influence of a hierarchy of values shaped at that time in the consciousness and attitudes toward life of subsequent generations of Poles. The romantic tradition comes easily to the fore in situations when it is felt that there is a threat to the nation’s existence, and its leaders want to call the nation to heroism and sacrifices for the fatherland. Hence the history and the political situation of the country determined the place of the romantic tradition in Poland. In periods of relative peace and short term stabilization this tradition was demonstratively neglected, as was the case after the defeat of the 1863/1864 uprising when people tried to focus on the economic development of the country and put aside the thought about an armed fight for its liberty. This was true later as well, when in 1918 Poland regained independence. Then Poles had to pass from the ethos of combat to one of work and reconstruction of the renewed state. The romantic tradition, which officially was highly appreciated, in reality lost its significance.

The years of the World War II brought once again a renaissance of the romantic tradition caused by the imposing analogies of the historical situation. After 1939 -- as a hundred years earlier -- many writers went into exile. They alluded to ancient stereotypes of poet-pilgrims, expelled from their fatherland and faithful to it till the end of their lives. In the invaded country a new generation of conspiratorial poet-soldiers naturally took over former heroic patterns.

There should be mentioned here the rather unsuccessful attempts at using the same tradition in the state propaganda imposed on Poland by the Soviet authorities after 1945. They tried to support with the romantic tradition, which was most highly esteemed in the Polish consciousness, new ideological and moral patterns, to couple romantic revolt with the Bolshevik revolution, and to present romantic ideals of universal justice as a tradition of moral principles for the new legislature. A spectacular symptom of such an usurped Romanticism was introducing a new language that was to express this tradition: concepts constituted by artificial word partnerships of the sort: "romantic realism" or "revolutionary aristocrats".

Spontaneously, on the other hand, this tradition revived after martial law was proclaimed in Poland in 1981 by general Wojciech Jaruzelski. Stylizations of martyrs for the national cause, of brave conspirators fighting against the imposed power were launched afresh; the patterns remained the same.

Recently, interest in the heroic stream of the Polish tradition, most frequently associated with Romanticism, has visibly decreased. When people think about constructing a normal state, about prosaic everyday work, there is little place for the cult of great heroes leading the nation in the name of a powerful spirit. This brings another spirit, that of looking into the art of that epoch for other values -- aesthetic values, poetic beauty and clear artistic novelty.

On the other hand, we can certainly find strange relics of the frequently revived romantic attitudes, the romantic way of thinking and the attitude towards reality which was held to be the specific features of the Polish character. They may be found in the scale of values in which patriotism and the ethos of sacrifice for the fatherland retain high positions, in conflictive attitude towards decisions of all kinds of state authorities (even if it is "our" government), and even in a tendency to unpredictable, seemingly irrational behavior during some elections.