Ars Poetica?

In 1968, Czesław Miłosz translated his famous poem “Ars Poetica?” with the help of translator Lillian Vallee in Berkeley, California. Miłosz was an internationally famous Polish poet. He enters into conversation with a long tradition of ars poetica, or poems that reflect on poetry. The tradition dates back to Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a Roman poet and the author of Ars Poetica, an epistolary poem advising young poets.

As Poets.org discusses, other writers in the tradition of ars poetica include Alexander Pope of the Enlightenment, Lord Byron, a romantic poet, Archibald MacLeish, an American poet and modernist, and Sharon Olds, a contemporary poet. In different ways, these writers meditated on the art of writing. (Ars Poetica: Explore the glossary of poetic terms, Poets.org)

Miłosz’s “Ars Poetica?” acts as a reflection by Miłosz on the nature of poetry, his frustrations with the current literary climate, and an exhortation to himself and other poets.

Poet Biography

Czesław Miłosz was born in Poland in 1911 to prominent parents. Growing up, he moved around due to his father’s conscription in the Russian army once World War I erupted. Even after the war concluded, Miłosz’s young life continued to be defined by conflict as his family was displaced by the Polish-Soviet War.