Nadniemeńskie wzgórze w „Balladach i romansach”
The Hill on the Banks of the Niemen in Adam Mickiewicz’s “Ballads and Romances”

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes "Kurhanek Maryli [Maryla’s Grave]" – the central poem in Mickiewicz’s poetic cycle – in an anthropological context. The analysis attempts to present the cultural patterns in the structure of the poem that determine its aesthetics, and to reveal the deeper connections with tradition and with the contemporary historical context following the Partitions. It reveals the symbolic space of the poem’s exposition and the structure of its iconographic configuration. It unveils the sacral patterns associated with the paschal graves and rituals celebrating the Resurrection, and the contradictory aesthetics connected with them. As a result, the construction and meaning of the poem focuses on the symbol of the “grave of the native land” – the major motif of post-Partition elegies. The verbal landscape and the image of the land in the poem convey an assessment of the country’s historical and existential situation as well as the idea of life being renewed in the homeland.

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