17 pages • 34 minutes read
Ars Poetica?
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"Ars Poetica" by Horace (19BC)
This long treatise on the craft of poetry was written in 19 BC by the renowned Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, or simply Horace. Translated here in prose, the original Latin hexameter was composed as a long letter to Roman senator Lucius Calpurnius Piso and his two sons. It is sometimes known as the “Epistle to the Pisos.” While this poem does not share too much with Miłosz’s poem of (almost) the same name, it represents the starting point for the tradition into which Miłosz enters. Like Miłosz, Horace explores what he thinks about poetry and how it ought to be written.
“Ars Poetica” by Archibald MacLeish (1952)
While MacLeish does not receive too much attention in contemporary circles, his take on the ars poetica remains one of the most famous American examples of the modal form. Written and published in 1926, it is not unlikely that Miłosz would have read or heard of this keystone poem of the New Critical movement.
“A Song on the End of the World” by Czesław Miłosz (1988)
Like “Ars Poetica?”, this poem is one of Miłosz’s most famous texts. Unlike “Ars Poetica?”, it gives an explicit and emotive window into Miłosz’s poetic grapples with living through political tumult. Written in Warsaw in 1944, the poem reflects the horrors of the second World War.
Further Literary Resources
The Poet’s Work: An Introduction to Czesław Miłosz by Leonard Nathan & Arthur Quinn (1991)
Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn are most interested in how Miłosz’s biography informs his work. The book introduces Miłosz and his poetry, sketching his thought and influences. Because Nathan and Quinn both knew and worked with Miłosz at Berkeley, the book incorporates many discussions they had with Miłosz. They bring Miłosz’s own interpretations of his work into the literary conversation.
Miłosz: A Biography by Andrzej Franaszek (2017)
This English translation of Franaszek’s biography of Miłosz is the definitive account of the poet’s life as of March 2022. The book charts Miłosz’s time in Eastern Europe through both World Wars, his life in France, and his late life in the United States. Franaszek examines Miłosz’s relationship to Catholicism, his poetic influences, and the impact of his life and work on the broader world.
Czesław Miłosz: Conversations by Czesław Miłosz (2006)
This posthumously published book collects a wide range of Miłosz’s letters, interviews, essays, and prose. While the book is technically written by Miłosz, it acts as more of an addendum to the poet’s work made up of a patchwork of various writing. Cynthia Haven, the editor, assembles elements to make a mosaic portrait.
Listen to Poem
The Academy of American poets provides this audio-only recording of Miłosz reading his own English translation of “Ars Poetica?” The recording displays the rhythms of Miłosz’s Polish-accented English.
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