„Zstąpmy do głębi”. Podziemia Mickiewicza

Abstract

The abyss recalled in the title of this article appears in Wysocki’s statement in Adam Mickiewicz’s drama Forefathers’ Eve. Part III (scene: Salon warszawski). In Mickiewicz’s writing ‘abyss’ appears more often than ‘underground’. The analysed material proves that in Mickiewicz’s imagination there is no clear distinction between solid, liquid and gas state of matter. Mickiewicz is not even pretending to keep balance between ‘abyss’ and ‘underground’ in his writing. The abyss (not necessarily being a metaphor) definitely and ultimately overshadows the ‘underground’. The imagination is usually aquatic, however sometimes the poet goes underground – reluctantly, without pleasure, only when he can not describe amorphous, liquid lava anymore.