Try to Praise the Mutilated World

“Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.” - Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World

This poem by Adam Zagajewski is about finding beauty in a world that isn't always beautiful. It has been written in the first person plural and with reference to previous shared events ('Return in thought to the concert where music flared'), so that 'we' are as much a part of the text as the voice is. This creates the synthetic personalisation that is needed when looking at a text so full of emotion.

   Throughout the poem the tone changes from hopeful, to demanding, to authoritative and we see this in the slight changes in the repetition of 'praise the mutilated world.' First we are asked to 'Try,' and then later we are told we 'must,' and then in an almost relenting way we are told we 'should' praise the mutilated world.
   Though at first the poem might seem grave or solemn, the negatives are brought back to neutrality, even optimism, by the contrasting positives. Where Zagajewski uses the verb 'vanishes' he counteracts it with the verb 'returns'. The same is true of the title – something as unpleasant as a 'mutilated world' is said to be something worthy of 'praise.' The whole piece is a mix of opposite lexical sets, one upbeat (stylish, joyfully, praise), one more downbeat (nettles, exiles, executioners).
   The writer also uses asyndentic listing – 'strawberries, drops of wine, the dew,' - so that there is no sense of these good things coming to an end. There is an implication that the list could in fact go on and that these beautiful things could out-weigh the macabre.

   Zagajewski personifies the earth by talking about its 'scars' and this is a clever way of making you see that the world is not unlike you or I. As humans are a mix of good and bad, so is the earth. It's scars are proof of its imperfection or 'mutilation' but also of its vulnerability.

   When we are told to 'remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered,' there is a conscious feeling of peace and intimacy, the likes of which had been previously taken by Zagajewski's talk of 'salty oblivion,' 'refugees heading nowhere,' and 'the executioners singing joyfully.' The connotations that come with the colour white are positive and calm and reduce the stress created by the previous powerful imagery.

  The fact that 'leaves eddied over the earth's scars,' gives the impression that while bad things happen, life moves on. The same impression is given with the loss of a thrush's 'grey feathers'; the bird is growing and changing, shifting from its youth into its the future.

  This poem helps us to look at the world in a more hopeful way, rather than seeing a few nasty situations and writing off an entire planet. Though the 'gentle light' may disappear from time to time, it will always return.