Przestrzeń akwatyczna w wierszach poetów polskich w Kanadzie
Aquatic space in poems by Polish poets in Canada

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses aspects related to the use of aquatic space in selected works by Polish poets living in Canada. The author discusses the ways of literary functioning of images of the ocean, sea, lakes and rivers in works by Zofia Bohdanowiczowa, Wacław Iwaniuk, Florian Śmieja, Bogdan Czaykowski and Andrzej Busza. For Polish émigré poets of the older generation, the water element was a frequent part of the represented world, as well as an important link in their creative imagination. Water spaces were connected, in fact, with the situation of lacking roots, of alienation faced with the vastness of the new continent, they overwhelmed with their size, and set insurmountable boundaries. According to the author, the symbolism of water was more often a metaphor of existence than a spiritual mirror of deliberations. Vertically juxtaposed against the sky/heaven and life, it became an icon of death, or even of nothingness. As a result, it revealed less often the traditional healing power or the metaphysical elevation function known from the past.

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