A Study Guide for Czeslaw Milosz's "In Music"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Czeslaw Milosz's "In Music," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535825818

Book preview

10

In Music

Czeslaw Milosz

1991

Introduction

After a literary career that spanned seven decades and included a Nobel Prize in 1980, Czeslaw Milosz saw his Provinces published in 1991 when he was eighty years old. With this collection, he continued to demonstrate a unique metaphysical approach to craft as he investigated realms of desire, aging, and the essence of being.

In Music, first published in the New Yorker in 1991 and later that year in Provinces, finds the poet confronting the meaning of existence and the fate of the spirit upon the death of the body. In order to tackle such daunting yet vital philosophical questions, Milosz turns to Gnostic and Manichean theology. As the speaker in the poem imagines a scene evoked by a duet of flute and drum, elements of these creeds inform and enrich his vision of humanity and nature's detachment from it. As the vision vanishes, the speaker contemplates humanity's quest for meaning in a world that will not chronicle individual lives. Then, continuing to use Gnostic and Manichean tenets, the speaker attempts to discover the fate of the spirit once released from the body. Ultimately, In Music attempts to seek balance between a transcendent rebirth and the natural world left behind.

Author Biography

Czeslaw Milosz (sometimes printed as Milosz) was born June 30, 1911, in Szetejnie, Lithuania, a region of Poland. His father, Aleksander (a civil engineer) and mother, Weronika, were also of Lithuanian descent. Although the traditions of Lithuania influenced Milosz as a child, he was also shaped by Polish culture and language.

Milosz attended the King Sigismundus Augustus Secondary School, located in Vilnius, from 1921 to 1929. His religious education was varied and expansive. He studied Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestantism, yet also explored Lithuanian literature that relied heavily on