Balladowanie i herboryzowanie
Balladising and Herborising

Mickiewicz’s 1822 “Poezje” (“Poetry”) against the Background of Warsaw and Vilnius Press

Summary/Abstract: A question about the footnote to “Pierwiosnek” (“Cowslip”) (the initial poem from “Ballady i romanse” <”Ballads and Romances”>) that contains the Latin name of the plant—Primula veris—opens considerations about Adam Mickiewicz’s 1822 “Poezje” (“Poetry”) in the context of the then Warsaw and Vilnius press. The press material is considered here as a collection of images, formulas, sequences of associations forming a peculiar verbal environment of the poems, and also a mediatory space between the author and the reader. Confrontation of Mickiewicz’s work with the poetic content of “Pamiętnik Warszawski” (“Warsaw Memoir”) reveals a smooth shift from the topoi of pastoral poetry to ballad one. By contrast, reading the poetry alongside the Vilnius press (“Tygodnik Wileński” <“Vilnius Weekly”>, “Dziennik Wileński” <“Vilnius Daily”>) discloses the connections of ballad-romance matter with the problems of scientific and prescientific understanding, marked in articles in natural history, including botany, and botany-inspired cultural practices (herbaria).

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