A song on the end of the world
A Song on the End of the World is a poem written by Czeslaw Milosz. This poem was written in 1944 very shortly after World War II. The title fits the poem very well as the poem is about how the world is coming to an end, but only one of God’s prophets know when the world will actually end, everyone else continues to live their normal life because the end of the world will happen like it is any other day. There will be no signals or warnings. It will happen when it happens. In A Song on the End of the World, Czeslaw Milosz demonstrates the writing qualities of a humanism approach, only slightly modified. Humanism’s goal is to affirm the dignity of human spirit, along with renewing the modern culture through a return to antiquity. Milosz on the other hand, sees humanism’s goal as humanizing one’s self, rather than humanizing the world. This is significant because an important part of Milosz’s work is the human tradition (Moore 191-192). Throughout this essay, I will provide key points that demonstrate the effect Miloszan Humanism had on his poem A Song on the End of the World. A Miloszan Humanism is a modern humanism that maintains the traditional humanism’s interest in the human past but that does not idealize or universalize the idea of what makes us human. Humanism is a pilgrimage across the human and natural world; in a search for human dignity and, let it be said, for personal liberation in the study of literature, philosophy and history, especially the literature of the ancient world. Milosz often used his poetry to convey a search for the essence of the world. To capture meaning of certain events that occurred in the past before it is too late. However, we never do fully experience a feeling of arrival or satisfaction during this spiritual hunt of the world. In A Song on the End of the World, there is only one person, a prophet, who knows the world is coming to an end, but he decides that it is in everyone’s best interest if he
Cited: Moore, Michael Edward. “An Historian’s Notes for a Miloszan Humanism.” JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory 37.2 (2007) 191-216. Milosz, Czeslaw. “A Song on the End of the World.” Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama Mcgraw-Hill Companies. 2006.