Polish Romantics Look at America

mickiewicz-norwid-kosciuszko-MINIATURA-1.jpg, default, From left: Adam Mickiewicz by S. Chejmann (repro. Marek Skorupski/Forum), Tadeusz Kościuszko, 1840-1850 (photo: National Museum in Krakow); Cyprian No

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Whether offering advice to the new nation or lamenting its failures to live up to its promise, Polish figures from Tadeusz Kościuszko to Adam Mickiewicz and Cyprian Norwid penned reflections on American history and politics. These works offer a fascinating examination of the complexities of American ideals and the relationship between the two countries.

At the end of the 18th century, both Poland and the United States were fighting for freedom. Poland was seeking to maintain long-held sovereignty in the face of encroaching partitions by its neighbours. The United States waged a war to form a new nation independent of Great Britain. By the end of that century, the United States had won – and Poland was just beginning what would be over a century of struggling for independence.

Figures like Tadeusz Kościuszko fought for freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. Inspired by that spirit, Polish Romantic writers of the 19th century turned to literature to advance the cause of liberty and keep a sense of Polishness alive. In their work, they reflected on the promise of American ideals – as well as the ways in which the promise of liberty still fell short.

Tadeusz Kościuszko advises Thomas Jefferson

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From left: portrait of Thomas Jefferson; Josef Grassi, portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, 1840–1850 (photo: National Museum in Krakow).

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Though not himself a ‘Romantic’, Tadeusz Kościuszko was an inspiration to Romantics, both in Poland and abroad. His dedication to fighting for freedom inspired generations of Poles to carry on the struggle for independence. The titular character of Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz shares his name. In England, giants of Romantic literature such as Lord Byron and John Keats were among those struck by the ‘Kościuszko craze’ and celebrated his revolutionary spirit in their verse.

Kościuszko’s fame, however, was not limited to Europe, as the great military leader had earned an enduring place in American history with his service in the American Revolution. In the years after the war, Thomas Jefferson wrote of Kościuszko: ‘[He is] as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known…”

Kościuszko held Jefferson in similarly high esteem, though he never stopped urging his American friend to hold true to the principles of liberty he espoused. Upon Jefferson’s election to the presidency in 1800, Kościuszko wrote to remind him to ‘always be a virtuous Republican with justice and probity without pomp and ambition’. Here, we see Kościuszko articulate the values he held dear – justice, honour, and humility.

While Kościuszko saw the potential of the young nation to be a haven of justice, he refused to turn a blind eye to the fundamental inequalities of a society where slavery was legal. In his final will, of which Jefferson was named executor, Kościuszko stipulated that his American estate be used to purchase, free, and educate enslaved people. Kościuszko had risked his life for the freedom of a nation an ocean away from his own; and even in death, he never stopped pushing it to live up to its ideals.

Adam Mickiewicz looks back on Christopher Columbus

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Left: Probable portrait of Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo, photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Right: Portrait of Adam Mickiewicz by Władysław Ciesielski, 1899, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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Adam Mickiewicz not only revered Kościuszko, but also the cause of independence to which he had devoted his life. Like Kościuszko, Mickiewicz saw in the American project the promise of freedom and individual liberty. In The Books of the Polish Nation and of the Polish Pilgrimage (1832), the great Polish poet reflected on Christopher Columbus and the ‘discovery’ of America. Having decried the corruption of the great European powers, Mickiewicz turned to Columbus, writing:

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…God saw his good intent, and blessed him; and that man discovered America, which became the land of freedom, a holy land.

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From ‘The Books of the Polish Nation and of the Polish Pilgrimage’ by Adam Mickiewicz, trans. Jewell Parish

Venerating America as ‘the land of freedom’, Mickiewicz’s work speaks to his admiration for Columbus and the founding principles of the United States. As we consider Mickiewicz’s perspective on America, it’s worth remembering that he was writing at a time when his own homeland was controlled by the partitioning powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Freedom was not only an abstract ideal, but a political aim. Though he did not fight in the armed uprisings for Polish independence, Mickiewicz devoted his life to preserving and promoting Polishness on the page. And in that writing, as he developed a vision of the arc of history, America assumed an important role as a beacon of hope.

Though convinced of America’s promise, Mickiewicz was not blind to the contradictions inherent in American declarations of liberty and recognized that slavery, as well as the slaughter and expulsion of native peoples, ran counter to the grand ideals of freedom. The Potato (1819), an early work from Mickiewicz, speaks to the issue. In the poem, Mickiewicz comically recounts the discovery of America, imagining a heavenly debate about the fate of Columbus’ expedition. Among the gathered saints, some oppose Columbus’ mission, for they foretell the death of indigenous people and the evils of slavery. Others argue that the voyage will lead to the eventual founding of the United States, positioned as a stronghold of freedom. Torn between the promise of a new nation and foreseen suffering that would accompany it, the cosmic debate raged on. That is, until Saint Dominic held up a potato – the great gift of the New World. It was thus decided that Columbus should be free to continue his voyage. Though ultimately ending on a comic note, the debate in The Potato speaks to Mickiewicz’s acknowledgement of the human cost of the American experiment.

Cyprian Norwid reflects on John Brown

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Left: Portrait of John Brown by Augustus Washington, between 1846 and 1847, photo: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Right: Cyprian Norwid, 1871, photo: Michał Szweycer/ Cyfrowa Biblioteka Narodowa Polona

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Much like his writing, Cyprian Norwid’s views on the United States are complex. Having spent time in New York between 1853 and 1854, he brought a personal perspective to his reflections on America. He shared his compatriots’ commitment to freedom and saw Poland and America as alike in their revolutionary spirit and liberatory ideals. He also was deeply troubled by the evils of slavery. In 1859, the abolitionist John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry and subsequent execution prompted Norwid to address the contradictions in America’s ideals and its practice of slavery.

The event that captured Norwid’s imagination – John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry – came at a time when tensions around slavery were at a breaking point in the United States. A fervent abolitionist, Brown intended to take over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry and thus begin a slave revolt. Though Brown and the 18 men who accompanied him were successful in capturing the arsenal, they were captured within a few days by federal troops. In that standoff, two of Brown’s sons were killed and he was taken into custody. The trial that followed offered the charismatic Brown a platform to share his abolitionist views and paint himself as a martyr to the cause of freedom. Though figures ranging from Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Victor Hugo voiced support for Brown, he was ultimately hanged in December of 1859. Less than two years later, the United States would be engaged in a bloody civil war.

News of the raid and Brown’s trial made it to Paris, where Norwid was living at the time. As Sara Dickinson notes, in Brown’s story, Norwid saw ‘a test of America’s historic role as the champion of human liberty. Insofar as Brown himself championed this cause, America’s sentencing of the abolitionist becomes particularly poignant and horrific’. Thus inspired, Norwid wrote two poems about Brown.

The first of these works, To Citizen John Brown, was identified by Norwid as ‘from a letter written to America in 1859, in November’. In the work, Norwid addresses the imprisoned abolitionist as he awaits execution. He begins:

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Over the Ocean’s undulant plain
A song, like a seagull, I send you, o! John…

To the land of the free maybe in vain
It will fly – for it doubts: is that land gone?...

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From ‘To Citizen John Brown’ by Cyprian Norwid, trans. Danuta Borchardt

Here, we hear Norwid’s conflicted feelings about America, declaring it the ‘land of the free’, yet questioning if that land is gone. This is a theme he develops further in John Brown, a poem that compares Brown to an eagle locked in a cage. The eagle – a symbol shared by the United States and Poland – becomes a central symbol in the work. Norwid writes:

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Thus you!—The noble of various nations,
Eagles locked out of the dawns of freedom,
Conspirators, expired before your time,
Youths in graves, or old men in youth—
—It would seem that—breaking
With your own muscles and nerves the laws of the times—
You first do that which later happens in history....

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From ‘John Brown’ by Cyprian Norwid, trans. George Kliger and Robert C. Albrecht

In Norwid’s hands, the bloodied eagle, beating its wings against its cage comes to represent not only Brown, but all those who fight for freedom. Throughout his life, Norwid grappled with the progression of history; and in John Brown, he articulates the idea that there are ideals that are suppressed by ‘the laws of the times’, but that will live on to shape the future. Brown – and those like him who fight against slavery and tyranny in America and abroad – may not live to see the fruits of their labour, but their cause will endure. Though Norwid may see Brown’s prosecution as running counter to the current of liberty, he nevertheless seems to maintain faith in the future.

Though John Brown begins without naming its titular figure, in his final stanza, Norwid identifies Brown and writes him into a broader historical narrative. He concludes the poem:

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Ah! The shades of Washingtons and Kościuszkos,
Of men, who from the far limits of a foreign nation
Came to nurse you, America! Where you were so young […]
Looking from the summits, where dwells the source of sight,
Will these shades in time not rather err?
And to those who call for help, in despair,
They will show a black flag on the cloud—
And people, pale, subdued, and quiet,
Will say, that is Brown, America hangs?

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From ‘John Brown’ by Cyprian Norwid, trans. George Kliger and Robert C. Albrecht

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Left: Portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, likely based on a drawing by Johann Heinrich Schröder, photo: Public Domain; Right: Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, 1803, photo: the Clark Art Institute

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We are returned to Kościuszko, here offered alongside George Washington as a symbol of freedom – and America. It was these revolutionary freedom fighters that ‘nursed’ America. Now, they look down from their heavenly heights and question what has become of the values they fought for. The ‘stars of America’ have ‘paled’ and Brown’s execution, Norwid argues earlier in the poem, will ‘be a stain on the red sun’. In hanging the committed abolitionist, America hangs its highest ideals – those principles of liberty and equality with which Norwid has come to associate Brown.

In the story of John Brown, Norwid saw both the promise and the failures of America. It is, in Norwid’s verse, a place where people are willing to fight and die for the freedom of others. It is also a place where they are condemned for those actions. Invoking Kościuszko, Norwid reminds us that these tensions – between the promise of freedom and the realities of inequality – go back to the earliest days of the nation. He also reminds us that since its inception, Poles have looked at America and offered enduring reflections on its progress in living up to its ideals.

Written by Alena Aniskiewicz, 14 May 2022

Sources: ‘The History of Polish Literature’ by Czesław Miłosz (University of California Press, 1983); “‘His Soul is Marching On”: Norwid and the Story of John Brown’ by Sara Dickinson (The Polish Review, 1990); ‘A Polish Poet on John Brown’ by George Kliger and Robert C. Albrecht (The Polish Review, 1963); Culture.pl

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