Significance of ‘Song’ in the Poem „Do obywatela Johna Brown” (“To the Citizen John Brown”)

Abstract

The aim of this article was the analysis of the meanings of song and their transformations in the poem by Cyprian Norwid Do obywatela Johna Brown. As a result of interpretational close-ups (especially to the initial phrase and the climax of this poem) the polysemic song by Norwid appears not only as a lyrical genre, a term synonymous to poetry in general but also as an act with performative and transgressive features leading the lyrical subject – also through a specifically ‘musical’ shaping of this poem – towards the experience of epiphany of sacrum (Marian and
Christological motives).