Janina, died. He publishedCollected Poems,
1931–1987in 1988, giving American critics and
audiences the most comprehensive selection of his
work available in English to date; Milosz trans-
lated much of this work himself. While his works
often treat the difficulties inherent in integrating
faith and reason, and while his faith was often
challenged by the cruelties he witnessed during
the two world wars and years of Communist
oppression in Poland, much of his poetry retains
a consistently Christian tone. In 1989 Milosz
returned to Poland for the first time after decades
of exile. In 1992 he married Carol Thigpen. The
couple made a home in Crakow, spending their
summer months there, while Milosz continued to
publish essays and poetry in English and Polish.
His work during this time period includedPiesek
przydrozny(1997), a collection of poems trans-
lated and published asRoadside Dog(1998).
Milosz’s second wife died in 2002. At the age of
ninety-three, Milosz died in Crakow, on August
14, 2004.
Poem Summary
Section 1: The Unveiling
In the first section of ‘‘From the Rising of the
Sun,’’ the poet speaks of being moved to write,
regardless of where he is or what he is doing. He
reveals how on this occasion, of beginning to
write again, he is fearful. The cause of this fright-
ened state appears to be a combination of his
feeling that language itself is not up to the task of
conveying truth, yet he feels at the same time that
he is compelled to write, he is unable to stop. At
the same time, the poet makes several references
to a red horse. (A red horse, associated with war,
figures prominently in the biblical book of Rev-
elation, which deals with the apocalypse. As
apocalyptical themes are explored in the poem,
some critics have suggested that this image of the
red horse is an allusion to the horse of Revela-
tion.) The poet additionally describes his feelings
of loss and longing for a native land that he
believes he will never see again. This lament
will continue throughout the work, taking vari-
ous forms in the course of the poem. In this first
section, the lament takes the form of a chorus, as
in a song of sorrow, as the poet describes dark
cities and old people full of hopes that will never
be fulfilled. After mentioning once again the red
horse, the poet states that he is able, however
dimly, to see the past, and that as an unnamed
other speaks for him, he is able to write in a state
described in spiritual terms.Section 2: Diary of a Naturalist
In this lengthy section, Milosz combines verse
and prose and recounts experiences in which the
dream of a unity with nature is sought but is
never achieved. Discussions of the natural
world yield to the lament of a lost generation,
lost cities, and Milosz’s lost past that cannot be
regained. The poet then describes a pilgrimage
undertaken when he turned from his hopes of
being a traveler and a naturalist to other endeav-
ors. The pilgrimage ends with the poet viewing
an image of a wooden Madonna with the infant
Jesus along with a throng of art lovers. He
reflects on his inability to identify and connect
with a sense of holiness.Section 3: Lauda
The sense of yearning for something almost
indefinable is carried over in the third section
of the poem, in which Milosz reflects on his
native region in Lithuania, describing the place
he was baptized and the character of the people
of the region. The verse portion of this section
gives way to a prose selection in which the poet
discusses, among other things, the etymology of
the title of the section, ‘‘Lauda,’’; the noble fam-
ily of the region of Liauda, a noble line of which
he is a descendant; he also provides a medieval
inventory of the possessions of a magistrate of
the region. The prose shifts once again to verse.
Milosz reflects on the futility of words, of lan-
guage, to capture meaning but simultaneously
expresses his urgent need to use language as a
tool to construct order out of the chaos of expe-
rience. This section additionally includes a poem
by the Lithuanian poet Teodor Bujnicki and an
extended prose commentary on the work of a
Lithuanian ethnographer, Father Jucewicz,
who collected traditional songs and folk legends.Section 4: Over Cities
This section begins, in verse, with the poet’s
denial of responsibility. He states that if he
does bear responsibility, he does not bear it for
everything. The verse in this section quickly
switches to prose in which the poet describes
himself presenting a lecture to students on the
Christian monk and theologian Maximus the
Confessor. The students are informed that Max-
imus warned against the temptation offered byFromtheRisingoftheSun