Poezja i prawda mitu
Poetry and Truth of the Myth

An Attempt at Interpreting Bolesław Leśmian’s “Dziewczyna” (“The Girl”)

Summary/Abstract: The author of the paper attempts to interpret Bolesław Leśmian’s “Dziewczyna” (“The Girl”). He begins with the rhythm―the vital issue for the poet that he saw as more important than the word level; in modern terminology―the verbomotoric level. The starting point for the poem’s reading is, nevertheless, versification analysis, and that was superbly carried out by Kazimierz Wyka. Mencwel relies on this analysis and also exceeds the “philosophical” distinguishments recurring in the subject literature. Similarly, he recalls Giambattista Vico’s concept of “poetic wisdom” and “austere metaphysics” to prove that “The Girl” is not a philosophical, but a mythological piece of writing. The article, to a possibly utmost detail, analyses the poem’s polyphonic construction and “bizarre” world presented in which the world and the other world intermingle and “participate” in each other. Towards the end of the poem the poet in a feasibly direct way, in his own voice, utters his message about the significance of mythologisation and about mythologisation being human and only human creation.

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