"Mała ojczyzna" w świadomości twórczej Adama Mickiewicza i Czesława Miłosza

ENThis article concerns the problem of the local homeland in the work of two poets, Adam Mickiewicz and Czesław Miłosz. Both originate from the same area, the one-time Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although they belong to different periods in literary history, certain similarities can be discerned in their fortunes and in their creative work. Both were emigrants, neither of his own will, but both retained in their hearts a love for the land where they were born: Mickiewicz for the lands of Nowogródek and for Vilnius, Miłosz for Szetejnie, Krasnogruda and Vilnius. With both Mickiewicz and Miłosz, the image of their native land possesses the features of a nostalgic ideal, because both formed this image whilst living in exile. One of the differences between them, however, is that in Pan Tadeusz Mickiewicz expressed faith in the future of his country, whereas Miłosz, having visited his country again after an absence of fifty two years, showed that its beauty had been destroyed by years of communist government.