Works
Baczyński’s artistry was characterised by dynamic change. His stance toward reality evolved, which caused him to introduce changes to his repertoire of artistic means. He began writing as a gymnasium student. The ‘early’ stage of his literary creativity ended in 1941. Until then he was chiefly influenced by J. K. Weintraub, Czechowicz and the poetry of the Vilnius Żagary group (especially by the works of Zagórski and Rymkiewicz).
In the forefront, one may find apart from the cosmic scenery typical of the catastrophists, the contrast between an idyllic childhood, which constituted an Arcadia of beauty and tranquillity, and the catastrophe, which destroyed that pleasant world. Contrary to the poets that inspired him, Baczyński was a poet who wrote about the apocalypse fulfilled.
The turn
In the autumn of 1941, Baczyński’s style underwent a substantial change. The poet suffered from ‘occupation shock’ and he turned toward the romantic tradition (especially toward Słowacki and Norwid). After this turn occurred Baczyński’s literary activity was marked by a conflict of two tendencies. On one hand, the poet was inclined to create ‘clean’ verse, which left room for free, imaginative interpretation, on the other he wanted to write committed poetry that would present a stance toward current events.
This second tendency prevailed and the poet’s role started to resemble that of an inspired seer, an awakener of consciences. The meaning of his poems remained, however, ambiguous and fluent. The language used by Baczyński became strongly metaphorical, it started to make use of numerous symbols, keywords and surprising combinations of motifs (the motif of water was most important). Two styles, the intellectually discursive one and the visionary-symbolic one (which referred to fairy tales, legends, myths and dreams) were constantly interlacing.