„The death is terribly alive” – on Pre-death poems by Zofia Zarębianka

Abstract

Pre-death poems / Wiersze dośmiertne are the poet’s personal confessions, but also an attempt to tackle the topic of death experienced through the passing of relatives and friends. The crucial issues while encountering the problem of death are considerations on time and places that are, have been and will be important for a human being. The author, similarly to her earlier collections of poems, convinces the readers that every human action is imbued with meaning, sense as we are all searching for and incessantly trying to establish the aim of our activities. What is essential is that for the heroine who is a believer, death is not the end but it is the stage leading to salvation. The poet as an outstanding specialist in literary studies employs in those poems well-known motifs, uses paradox, contrast, she combines a naïve nursery rhyme with metaphysical dread, nevertheless, in all of those parts she remains authentic.