Try to Praise a Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski

Essay by ChelzortronUniversity, Bachelor'sB, November 2008

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In the Poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski, the point that the speaker is trying to get across is that one must learn to accept or praise the faults of the world, to see the beauty to help heal the mutilated world. We as a society must remember the good things when times begin to get arduous. Zagajewski uses repetition with the phrase "Praise the Mutilated World," and each time the phrase is written, it means something completely different because of the tone that is being used and the urgency that is being asked to praise the mutilated world. The tone changes throughout each stanza, it changes from an asking tone, to a demanding tone, to a parental tone then a pleading tone to help the speaker project his feelings to the reader that even through the darkness there is light. Zagajewski also uses imagery to help the reader be one with the essay, by allowing one to put themselves in this poem.

Zagajewski is trying to remind the readers to see past the bad, to praise the good when things have gone wrong.

associate Adam Zagajewski's poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" with September 11th. Although it was not written in memoriam to the victims of this tragedy (Twin Towers), it did appear in The New Yorker on September 26, 2001. For many, these were the first healing words we were able to digest. Zagajewski is quoted as saying, "The poem reflects a philosophical conviction more than an event."( Tennant) When asked what particular event sparked the creation of this poem he said "For me, it's the way I have always seen the world. When I was growing up I saw a lot of ruins in postwar Poland. This is my landscape. Somehow...