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Mikolaj Sep Szarzynski

I lived from 1550-1581. I was from Poland, and am in the European category.

Mikolaj Sep Szarzynski (1550-1581) was a Polish religious poet remembered for writing metaphysical sonnets with inverted word orders.



A forerunner of Baroque poetry, he wrote predominantly religious poetry akin to that of the English Metaphysical poets. In this period satire and pastoral were the most popular forms.



Szarzynski was a full-fledged baroque poet avant la lettre. His only collection, Rytmy albo wiersze polskie (Polish Rhythms or Verses; publicated posthumously in 1601), has been rediscovered only in recent decades, after centuries of oblivion.



Szarzynski did not write much, but what he wrote reveals an extraordinary personality, a profoundly metaphysical poet. In particular, a handful of his religious sonnets, in which tortuous syntax, violent enjambment, and oxymoronic imagery portray a mind torn asunder by spiritual torment, bear comparison with the best of John Donne or George Herbert.







Bibliography source: polska2000.pl

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  • Epitaph To Rome
    If midst Rome you wish to see Rome, pilgrim,
    Tho in Rome naught of Rome might you see,
    14 lines, 1 comment
  • Song II
    Why flatter thyself, Tyrant,
    In ways great in evil?
    32 lines
  • Cupid's Statue
    He's but a child, tho
    Unscathed he'd not be
    15 lines
  • Sonnet V
    'Tis hard to love not, whilst to love
    Be sad joy, if by lust misled,
    14 lines
  • Sonnet III (To the Virgin Mary)
    Unequalled Virgin, the second ornament
    Of the human race, whose dignity has not diminished
    14 lines
  • Song V
    To Thee, eternal Defender of all creation,
    I call, frail, commiserate, nowhere secure.
    28 lines
  • Song IV
    Downcast midst vile sins,
    From my innermost heart
    35 lines
  • Song III
    Have mercy on me, my Lord,
    For a foe treds o'er me and strives
    48 lines
  • Sonnet IV
    Peace is happiness, but war is our plight
    Under the heavens. He -- prince of the night,
    14 lines
  • Fortune's Statue
    She's mistress of all:
    Rule of this earth
    34 lines
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