Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

The article Zbigniew Herbert’s private breviary presents an analysis of Zbigniew Herbert’s poetic prayers, coming from the last period of his creative life, namely from the cycle titled collectively The Breviary, referring to the book of all liturgical texts of the Church. Four of the poems analysed come from the 1998 collection Epilogue to a Storm, and one can be found in the volume Scattered Poems (A Reconnaissance) published years after the poet’s death. The analysis of The Breviary poems tries to include the source context, i.e. to recognise what relation there is between a concrete text and liturgical prayers of the Church, and to find out to what extent Herbert’s poetic prayers follow the generic and stylistic patterns of canonical prayers. The issue that reappears in the analysis is the situation of the speaker of The Breviary, described as homo orans, and his attitude in the context of the approaching end of his life.