the truth of reason, underscoring the struggle the
poet has been facing in different forms through-
out the course of the poem, the struggle to hold
on to faith despite the lessons of loss taught by
reason and experience. Milosz once again turns
to verse, recalling his mother and the faith she
offered him. The section concludes with the
poet’s expression of a sense of being disoriented,
isolated. He is once again lost, asking where he
has gone.
Section 5: A Short Recess
Milosz envisions a different life in this section,
one distinct from the one he lives now. He imag-
ines what his life would have been like if his early
dreams had come true, if he had remained in his
native land. But, as he explains, he realized that
he wanted more, including fame and power. Yet
after he began to travel to far off countries to
seek his desires, he learned that the goal was an
empty one, that he had been deluded. The sec-
tion ends with an emphasis on the poet’s sense of
isolation and his pain and shame at trying to
behave as he believed he was supposed to, trying
to be like other people while knowing that truly
he was not like them. He wonders in the last lines
of this section whether or not one’s life ever ends
up meaning much.
Section 6: The Accuser
In this section, the poet addresses what he
describes as sins: his vanity, his self-willfulness,
his interest in the poison of faiths that contradict
the church history he has learned. In particular
he mentions Manicheanism and Gnosticism,
two philosophies that deny the benevolence and
omnipotence of God. The poet also makes refer-
ence to Marcionism, which holds that the venge-
ful Hebrew God of the Old Testament was a
separate and lesser being than the all-forgiving
deity of the New Testament. The movement of
the poem carries the reader with the poet on a
journey in which he chooses a difficult path over
an easy one, with the goal being a serene castle in
the clouds where he will find communion with
those who know and love him. But what the poet
finds is that the castle never existed. What fol-
lows is a list of horrors he has witnessed, a stark
description of human suffering. The ending of
the section features the hope offered by a ritual
for the purposes of purification.
Section 7: Bells in Winter
Milosz begins the final section of the poem with
a description of a dream-vision in which he is
told by a messenger of God that the Lord’s
mercy will save us. The poet then informs the
reader that the incident he has just recounted, of
traveling from Transylvania and having this
vision, never happened, yet it could have, he
insists. He promises that the next portion of the
poem is not an invention, and he describes a
street in a village, and the home he had there,
along Literary Lane. While he speaks of the
place fondly, he states that there is no reason
for him to try to re-create such a place in the
here and now. He acknowledges now a sense of
connection that has eluded him in various ways
throughout the course of the poem. Stating that
he belongs to those people who believe inapo-
katastasis, he explains what the word means to
him: movement in reverse, backward toward a
state of unity. It means, he tells us, restoration, in
the spiritual sense. The poet explains that every-
thing possesses a dual existence, as everything
exists in time as well as when time itself shall no
longer exist. From this explanation, Milosz
moves to a description of a frigid winter morn-
ing. The sound of the bells jingling nearby gives
way to the more persistent and insistent pealing
of church bells at various churches (nine of
which he lists by name). He returns once again
to the old servant, Lisabeth, whom he described
in the section on Literary Lane. Now she hears
the bells and is urged to Mass. He identifies
himself with her now, now that he too is old.
Lisabeth is also identified as a member of the
communion of saints, and Milosz lists others
who are members of that group, specifically
other women-witches forced to confess their
wickedness, women used by men for pleasure,
and wives who have been divorced. He imagines
the song of the choirmaster, imagines the cleans-
ing away of sins with the proper rituals. Asking
what year it is and answering himself, that it is
easy to remember, Milosz brings the reader back
to the present, where he can see San Francisco
through the fog. He suggests that maybe his
reverence will save him after all from the apoc-
alypse he describes in the last lines of the poem,
the end of days that may be far off or may occur
next week. He speaks again of the hope of the
spiritual restoration he discussed earlier, yet the
last line grimly states that he was judged for his
despair, for he has been unable to understand the
truth of such a restoration.From the Rising of the Sun