Poeta Grochowiak – „dusza czująca” uwięziona w oście

The author of the essay makes an attempt to discover such aspects in Stanisław Grochowiak’s poetry which prove that he is rooted in the Romantic tradition, and at the same time experienced tragic, traumatic feeling of being hemmed in by contemporary reality. This feeling is caused by aesthetic and moral degradation of the world surrounding him, which prevents the continuation of high style poetic tradition and forces the change of the language used. Thus, Grochowiak introduces dissonances, plays with opposites, uses grotesque to present lyrical situations. His connections with Romantic tradition focus mainly on taking over Romantic symbols/masks of the author’s persona and his individual perspective on the world, in which he ambivalently balances sensitive expression with defiant, accusatory description of the world. He uses irony, grotesque and blunt realism uncovering bad or mutilated images of the world. The author of the article made also an attempt to interpret Grochowiak’s hermetic, obscure, “dark” poems and explain the reasons why the poet deliberately employed “dark” poetics strategy.