Poetic “Dendrology” of Władysław Broniewski

The role of dendroimages in the creation of a mythopoetic picture of the world is explored using the poetry of Władysław Broniewski. “Dendrological Perspective” (V.A. Khorev) represents an opportunity for a new interpretation of the work of a poet who, it would seem, has been studied quite thoroughly. The poetic “dendrology” of Broniewski allows us to demonstrate the genetic connections and typological affi nities of the Polish poet’s work with Russian literature, primarily with the poetry of Sergei Yesenin. Bronevsky found “mysticism” in Yesenin’s poetry, and this “mystical” beginning is characteristic of Broniewski’s “dendrological” lyrics. Artistically refl ecting the Slavic archaic ideas about nature and following the Yesenin tradition, Broniewski was the creator of the “tree” myth, in which the central role is given to the oak and the birch because these images are the main male and female characters in the world of trees. In Broniewski’s poems about birch and oak there are Yesenin allusions, but there is also the specifi city of the corresponding dendroimages. Broniewski’s birch is more closely connected with the afterlife than Yesenin’s. This is especially evident in Broniewski’s post-war poetry, including the poem cycle “Anka”, dedicated to the memory of the poet’s deceased daughter. The poetic mythology of the “feeling” tree is concentrated by Broniewski in the poem “Oak”. The oak tree’s dendroimage is biographically connected with Broniewski’s hometown of Płock. In Broniewski’s lyrics there is a mythopoetic “fusion” of the oak tree’s images and the poet’s lyrical “I” (“It’s me – oak!”).