“A Song on the End of the World”- A poem by Czeslaw Milosz

Group 2: Julen Melendez, Karen Velasco, Sarkis Zmboyan, Billy Pho

Biography: The Early Years

•Czeslaw Milosz was a Polish poet born in Szetejnie (then Poland, now Lithuania) in 1911. During his early life, his father was drafted by the Tsar’s army and built bridges throughout Russia. At the end of the war in 1918, the family settled in Vilnius (then Poland, now Lithuania).

•Milosz was a university scholar who enjoyed poetry. He cofounded the Polish avant-garde literary group “Zagary” and co edited an Anthology of Social Poetry. Due to his leftist views, he worked for Polish Radio in Warsaw. During WWII, Milosz worked in underground presses.

Biography: Early adulthood

• When WWII ended, Czeslaw became a diplomat for the Polish government in the USA. Later, he was transferred to Paris. He published The Captive Mind and The Seizure of Power, the latter received the European Prize of Literature.

•  Czeslaw eventually moved to the United States in 1960. He took a job at UC Berkeley teaching Polish literature. For his long narrative in poetry, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. A curious fact is that he has written all his poems in Polish. Czeslaw died in 2004.

Biography: Moving to the United States

•His poem “Song on the End of the World” includes his views of the destruction of Warsaw by the Nazis during WWII.

Biography: The Poem

On the day the world endsA bee circles a clover,A fisherman mends a glimmering net.Happy porpoises jump in the sea,By the rainspout young sparrows are playingAnd the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world endsWomen walk through the fields under their umbrellas,A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,Vegetable peddlers shout in the streetAnd a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,The voice of a violin lasts in the airAnd leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunderAre disappointed.And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumpsDo not believe it is happening now.As long as the sun and the moon are above,As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,As long as rosy infants are bornNo one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophetYet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:There will be no other end of the world,There will be no other end of the world.

“Song on the End of the World”

VocabularyThe diction of the poem is quite simple although these are a few words some may not understand.

Porpoises: are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals,that are sometimes referred to as mereswine.

Young Sparrows: are a family of small passerine birds.

Drunkard: a person who is habitually drunk.

Prophet: a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God.

AnalysisDivided into four stanzas, this twenty-six-line poem has no set stanza structure or order which is important in this poem because there’s nothing to predict through the structure for example in the first two line, “On the day the world ends,/ a bee circles a clover,” and continues with ordinary events. Overall Miosz fashions a simple, naive narrative of events. There is also no fixed rhyme scheme. In the poem there is repetition being used. The major theme in this poem is the end of the world.

In Stanza 1 Milosz describes vivid images of nature such as “a bee circles a clover” and “young sparrows playing” as life’s creatures unaware that the world is about to end. Here Milosz is saying when the world ends, no one will know. Nothing will be as you would think for the end of the world. The days will be the same, nothing will change, no one (but the old man) will have a clue how the world will ended.

In Stanza 2 Milosz focuses on mundane human activities as opposed to nature. He mentions “women walking through the fields under their umbrellas” and “a drunkard growing sleepy”. People are clearly clueless that the world is coming to an end. He might say, what else are we to do but bind our tomatoes, sell our vegetables, sail our boats, get drunk, wake up, go to sleep, and work as usual. In this stanza the poem’s speaker feels that life goes on as usual, even as the world is ending.

AnalysisIn Stanza 3 Milosz describes people’s reactions to hearing about the end of the world as “disappointed” and full of skepticism. It seems people expected an apocalyptic end to the world: One filled with “expected signs” such as “lightning and thunder”. Religious people do believe that spirits and higher creations of God will show signs and come down to earth on the doomsday, but since that isn’t happening, those who are religious will not believe the world is ending.

In Stanza 4 Milosz states that only one person is cognizant about the event taking place. This person is “a white-haired old man”. Old age stands for experience and knowledge. However, even he continues to carry his chore: “He binds his tomatoes”.

The last two lines in Stanza 4, “There will be no other end of the world”, is a form of repetition and says how little sanity is left in the old man because he is the only one that knows of the end of the world. It can also possibly mean that Milosz feels impotent about the end of the world. Milosz references Warsaw 1944 at the very end of the poem, the year Germany invaded Poland.

QUIZ 1.What year was Czeslaw Milosz born on? 2.What country was Milosz born in? 3.What kind of imagery is used in the first stanza? 4.What phrases do the first two stanzas have in

common? 5.In the third stanza what is the tone of the first

line?6.Throughout the poem what is Milosz constantly

reminding us of? 7.Define prophet.8. Why may some not believe the world is ending? 9.Who are those that would expect signs &

archangel’s trumps?10.True/False

Others expected chaos to occur on the day the world ends.