readers. They would wonder how such a serious
writer could take seriously the Marian apparitions
at Lourdes and Fatima. Believing in the authen-
ticity of such apparitions is not even a requirement
of Catholic faith. And yet here is Milosz admit-
ting, ‘‘I too have been a pilgrim in Lourdes / by the
grotto,’’ and further, ‘‘Lady, I asked you for a
miracle.’’ And if these revelations of common
piety upset his nonreligious admirers, he, too,
was somewhat upset by the experience: ‘‘My pres-
enceinsuchaplacewasdisturbed/Bymydutyas
a poet who should not flatter popular imaginings,
/ Yet who desires to remain faithful to your unfa-
thomable intention / When you appeared to chil-
dren at Fatima and Lourdes.’’
We must take this as his last word in this
long poem (that is in fact what it is). After
rehearsing all his anguished questions and the
Gnostic solutions to which he had sometimes
turned along the way, he finishes with a serene
prayer to the Beautiful Lady and takes children
as his model. He no longer demands a transpar-
ent solution to the problem of innocent suffer-
ing. Instead, he expresses a humbler aim: to
remain faithful to the ‘‘unfathomable intention’’
of the mother of Christ. Milosz had suggested
earlier in this stanza that part of this intention
has to do with beauty: ‘‘As if you wished to
remind them that beauty is / one of the compo-
nents of the world.’’ The Lady herself is beauti-
ful, as is the place where she appears, ‘‘in
Lourdes / by the grotto, where you hear the
rustle of the river and, / in the pure blue sky
above the mountains, a narrow scrap of moon.’’
Milosz wished to bear witness to the great
Christian insight about beauty, so memorably
expressed by Dostoevsky: beauty will save the
world. For Milosz this was not an insight arrived
at late in life; theTreatisepresents us with the
mature version of what we already saw in the
poetry he was writing during the darkest period
of the Second World War: ‘‘Gentle verses written
in the midst of horror declare themselves for life.’’
As a young poet, Milosz knew that it was always
the poet’s job to record and praise the world’s
passing beauty. In theTreatise, the older Milosz
reminds us that the poet receives this beauty from
a permanent source beyond the world.
If this message about beauty was indeed part
of the Lady’s intention, we might go on to ask
whether her intention might ultimately concern
the revelation of her Son as the secret of her own
and the world’s beauty. After all, everything
about Mary leads us in this direction. Non-
Catholics often worry about an excessive Cath-
olic devotion to Mary, and in some cases the
worry is justified; but in Catholic teaching and
tradition—and here Milosz is typically Catholic
in making Mary his last reference—Mary,
though beautiful in herself, leads us first and
last to Christ, who is beautiful even in his
dying. He is the Beauty that will save the world.
Source:Jeremy Driscoll, ‘‘The Witness of Czeslaw Milosz,’’
inFirst Things, No. 147, November 2004, pp. 28–33.Sources
Davie, Donald, ‘‘A Clamor of Tongues,’’ inNew Repub-
lic, Vol. 206, No. 11, March 16, 1992, p. 36.
Dooley, David, ‘‘Poetry Chronicle: Czeslaw Milosz, Sea-
mus Heaney, Mary Stewart Hammond, etc.,’’ inHudson
Review, Vol. 45, No. 3, Fall 1992, pp. 509, 510.
Keen, Suzanne, ‘‘The Poet’s Geography,’’ inCommon-
weal, Vol. 119, No. 19, November 6, 1992, p. 34.
Marx, Bill, ‘‘Gurus and Gadflies,’’ inParnassus: Poetry in
Review, Vol. 18–19, No. 1–2, 1993, p. 100.
Milosz, Czeslaw, ‘‘In Music,’’ inProvinces, translated by
the author and Robert Hass, Ecco Press, 1991, p. 8.
‘‘Notes on Current Books: Poetry,’’ inVirginia Quarterly
Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, Summer 1992, p. 99.
Review ofSelected Poems: 1931–2004,inPublishers
Weekly, Vol. 253, No. 4, January 23, 2006, p. 187.
Vendler, Helen, ‘‘Tireless Messenger,’’ inNew York
Review of Books, Vol. 39, No. 14, August 13, 1992, p. 46.Further Reading
Czarnecka, Ewa, and Aleksander Fiut, eds.,Conversa-
tions with Czeslaw Milosz, trans. Richard Lourie, Har-
court Brace Jovanovich, 1987.
In this book, Milosz discusses his early years,
education, pre- and post-war observations,
philosophical and religious opinions, approach
to craft, and life after the Nobel Prize.
Haven, Cynthia, L., ed.,Czeslaw Milosz: Conversations,
University of Mississippi Press, 2006.
This book essentially acts as a follow-up to the
work of Czarnecka and Fiut. It contains a col-
lection of rare interviews with Milosz (including
a previously unpublished one with former
Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky), as well as
updated commentary from critics, colleagues,
and friends of the poet. Milosz’s views concern-
ing the role of the poet are also highlighted.In Music