"I dread to descend into the depth of human soul" : the trepidation of the soul and body chills, or Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajers perception of fear

This is an analysis of the literary expressions of fear in the poetry of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer. Intense fear is not only one of the dominant emotions depicted in his work but it also underpins his poetic technique. The article examines the manner in which he communicates the somatic experience of dread, his use of bodily metaphors in descriptions of nature, his poetic landscapes of fear, the records of his nightmares, the modernist phobophobia as well the sources of the high anxiety (to do with the mysteries of life, death and man's inner life) that dogged him at all times. In its readings the article draws on the studies in affect theory, somatopoetics and psychoanalytic criticism.