In Music
After a literary career that spanned seven decades
and included a Nobel Prize in 1980, Czeslaw
Milosz saw his Provinces published in 1991
when he was eighty years old. With this collec-
tion, he continued to demonstrate a unique meta-
physical approach to craft as he investigated
realms of desire, aging, and the essence of being.
‘‘In Music,’’ first published in theNew Yorker
in 1991 and later that year inProvinces,findsthe
poet confronting the meaning of existence and the
fate of the spirit upon the death of the body. In
order to tackle such daunting yet vital philosoph-
ical questions, Milosz turns to Gnostic and Man-
ichean theology. As the speaker in the poem
imagines a scene evoked by a duet of flute and
drum, elements of these creeds inform and enrich
his vision of humanity and nature’s detachment
from it. As the vision vanishes, the speaker con-
templates humanity’s quest for meaning in a world
that will not chronicle individual lives. Then, con-
tinuing to use Gnostic and Manichean tenets, the
speaker attempts to discover the fate of the spirit
once released from the body. Ultimately, ‘‘In
Music’’ attempts to seek balance between a tran-
scendent rebirth and the natural world left behind.
Author Biography
Czeslaw Milosz (sometimes printed as Miłosz)
was born June 30, 1911, in Szetejnie, Lithuania,
103CZESLAW MILOSZ
1991