On the Language of Jerzy Żuławski’s Poetry

Abstract

As a result of an analysis of the language of Jerzy Żuławski’s poetry, some devices have been selected which go beyond the linguistic norms common and universally accepted on the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. The selected linguistic devices can be divided into traditional, known in literature, and idiosyncratic, which make the language of the poems somewhat original. All these devices have been described and evaluated in chapters on phonetics, inflexion, syntax and lexis.

Phonetic idiosyncracies are scarce and not many of them are typical of artistic language. Inflexion reflects the commonly accepted norms and patterns of style. Trying to make the poems original and their language individual, the poet used syntactic means more frequently than lexical ones, which is not typical of methods of stylization.

The language of Żuławski’s poetry is „classical"; moderately permeated with traditional stylistic devices; slightly „poeticized” , archaized and individual. It lacks dialectal phrases and expressive devices characteristic of Modernist poets.