Wiosenny wybuch uczuć i spojrzenie wstecz u progu jesieni życia. Sposoby przedstawiania pór roku w „Erotykach” Franciszka Dionizego Kniaźnina
Spring’s explosion of emotions and looking back to the decline of life. Ways of showing seasons in Franciszek Dionizy Kniaznin’s “Erotics”

Summary/Abstract: Erotics were published in 1779. They contained ten parts, where Kniaznin wrote not only about joy caused by falling in love, but also about disappointment, melancholy, sorrow. This instability of human emotions the poet compared to instability of a nature and seasons. The aim of the article was to show that Kniaznin uses different ways of showing this phenomenon. The article is divided into three parts. The first one shows that the poet very often connected the phenomenon of seasons with Roman and Greek mythology. That is why Erotics are dedicated to the goddess of love and spring — Venus, and she also appears the most frequently in Erotics. There appear also Zephyr and Favonius — personifications of springs’ wind, there is also Flora, who is another goddess connected with this beautiful time of year. All those characters are signs of a coming spring. The second part of the article shows how does the nature change during different seasons. Kniaznin personifies autumn, which is dark and depressing and he opposes it to a sunny and full of joy spring. These different images are showed together with human emotions. The last part of the article is about reflections on a volatility of a human life. Poet compares it with shortness of seasons and remarks that human youth is as joyful and carefree as spring, he also refers to other times of a year, comparing it with a human life.

• Details
• Contents