focused on the transcendent beyond the natural
world and tried to imagine and convey a reality
beyond the scope of human perception. Renew-
ing interest in the genre, in 1921, T. S. Eliot wrote
the essay ‘‘The Metaphysical Poets,’’ which
praises seventeenth-century poets for revolutio-
nizing poetry. Eliot argues that modern poets
should use the metaphysical approach in their
own work. Milosz’s interest in metaphysics
began during his secondary school education
(1921–1929), and he used this approach in his
work during and after World War II. Much of
his postwar poetry, including ‘‘In Music,’’ con-
tains characteristics of metaphysical poetry.
Gnosticism
Until the twentieth century, Gnosticism was
considered a Christian heresy, an incomprehen-
sible and remote school of thought. However,
modern scholarship recognizes that Gnosticism
predated and heavily influenced Christianity.
Although once deemed an amalgamation of
other creeds, Gnosticism is recognized as a sep-
arate and distinct religion. Gnosticism is
includes the belief that matter is wicked and
salvation of the spirit from matter can only
occur through gnosis (knowledge of spiritual
truth). Milosz was influenced by Gnostic tenets
and often imagined the spirit’s release from mat-
ter, particularly in poems written during his later
years as he faced his own aging process.
Critical Overview.
‘‘In Music’’ first appeared in theNew Yorkeron
March 11, 1991, and it was published later that
year as part of the collectionProvinces. In this
work, Milosz, then in his eighties, examined
themes on aging and offered meditations on reli-
gion, the afterlife, and the world of art. The
Virginia Quarterly Reviewobserved: ‘‘As always
in Milosz, these meditative poems are filled with
specific reminiscences and sharp insights. Never
does he delude himself.’’ The review also
described this collection as containing ‘‘timeless
poems that are marvelously translated by the
author and Robert Hass.’’
However, not all critics were as impressed,
with the translations. In a review ofProvinces,
David Dooley, writing forHudson Reviewstated
that he had ‘‘a couple of quibbles about the trans-
lations: ‘decoded’... now carries with it the stench
of academic jargon, and ‘supported’ in its current
psychobabble sense... seems anomalous when
applied to the Europe ofseveral decades ago.’’
However, Dooley agreed that other poems co-
translated by Haas demonstrate the translator’s
‘‘good ear and fine sense of flow.’’ Dooley also
emphasized the proficiency of Milosz who contin-
ued to add to an already massive body of work: ‘‘It
isn’t Milosz the ‘eminent poet’ who impresses in
Provinces, but the poet who continues to do good
work when he might well have stopped.’’
Despite the challenges of capturing the Polish
rhythms and tones of Milosz’s voice in an English
translation, ultimately Provinces was highly
regarded and well received. Bill Marx inParnas-
sus: Poetry in Reviewwrote that ‘‘Milosz’s trans-
formative intelligence weaves a lyrical response to
the changes wrought on the past by time.’’ Marx
described the poet’s metaphysical meditations,
evident in ‘‘In Music’’ as an ‘‘an inner landscape
ofclashingcontrariesandtimes....desertsformed
by perceptions of nature’s indifference are dotted
with oases rooted in intimations of the transcen-
dent.’’ Suzanne Keen, a reviewer forCommonweal,
agreed that Milosz is a ‘‘poet who both soars
above the earth and sees in it every detail.’’
Critics also noted that Milosz was writing
more Christian-themed poems in his later years
as seen inProvincesand in his previous volume,
The Collected Poems 1931–1987. In ‘‘A Clamor
of Tongues,’’ published in the New Republic,
Donald Davie depicted these pieces as ‘‘serene
and exhilarating,...It is not theserenity of a
man who at last has all the answers, but of a
man who acknowledges that some tormenting
questions are unanswerable.’’
Milosz continued to use a metaphysical
approach to his poems inProvinces, posing dif-
ficult questions concerning the transcendent
nature of reality. Often the existence of God
was questioned and the meaninglessness of exis-
tence described, as ‘‘In Music’’ and other poems
illustrate. However, he ultimately would return
to his Christian belief of redemption and the
inherent goodness of humankind, and these sen-
timents often surface in even the bleakest poems.
Helen Vendler, reviewer for the New York
Review of Books, asserted that Milosz’s poetry
ponders ‘‘how to permit, along with the subter-
ranean fury and its icy calm, the simultaneous
existence of luminosity, faith and hope.’’
Selected poems fromProvinceslater appeared
in the 2003New and Collected Poems, 1931–2001In Music