Wanderers – Pilgrims – Soldiers – Emigrants

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to review imageries and experiences of a specific group of poets organized within the frame of the Second Polish Corps during World War II, and to analyze its most characteristic motifs within a deeper historical context of Polish romanticism, as “replayed” in the paths and roles of the Corps poets-soldiers. The study is based on the extensive use of all available books of verses and other literary publications of the Corps, which were produced on the long way from the Soviet Union, where the bulk of Corps was formed in 1941–1942, through the Middle East, Italy, to the final exile station, London in most cases. This material is analyzed within the reference framework of the Polish poetry of World War II studies, as well as comparative studies on the Polish romantic literary tradition, especially that of the Great Emigration. This comparative point of view and method of analysis is used in all parts of the chronologically organized text. From a short presentation of the history of the Corps variegated cultural life which accompanied its development from 1941 to 1945, it proceeds to similarly succinct picture of the group of more than 80 active poets publishing in the Corps. The study centers its analysis on the main theme forming the time-perception of the world presented in soldier poetry: the motif of the road or path. It reveals a phenomenon of uniting very different poetic “schools” and styles (from extreme avant-gardist and futurist, through neoromanticism, to cabaret texts) under the pressure of the war and exile experiences, as well as the strength of the great romantic tradition of Polish poetry formed along a very similar path: from Russia, Siberia, through the Middle East, to Italy, where Polish soldiers had fought under Napoleon, to London and Paris, centers of the Great Emigration. Topoi of martyrdom, strengthened through Siberia and the Holy Land connections, homelessness, martial experiences in Italy, a “treason” of Western allies (Teheran and Yalta conferences) are effectively “refreshed” in this comparative approach.