Essay - Adam Zagajewski's Poem 'Try to Praise the Mutilated World': How...

Adam Zagajewski's Poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World": How and Why it Comforted Us on September 11, 2001

***** Polish poet Adam ***** work was not well know to most Americans until September 11, 2001, when New York's World Trade Center, and the Pentagon in Wash*****gton D.C., were subjected to terrorist air attacks, ***** first ever on American soil. In many ways, Americans lost their innocence that day, as ***** ***** ***** sense of safety. In fact, America has felt "mutilated" ever since. Zagajewski's poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated *****" expresses the way people felt on that awful day. Many found the poem comforting, especially for a rather abstract work by a poet who is not even American.

The poem admits and describes the world's imperfecti*****s, but it also says we must hope ***** better times, which will come, as *****y always have. Lines 17-21, the final five lines of the poem, imply that in time, the good in the world will again outweigh the bad:

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

***** the ***** world and the grey feather a thrush lost, ***** the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns.

I feel that the poem hit a deep chord with ***** on September 11, 2001, because suddenly we *****re all living in a "mutilated world" that had seemed beautiful only yesterday. But on and after September *****, we struggled to "Remember June's long days, ***** wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew" (lines 2-3).

Our optimism ***** mutilated. We realized ***** were vulnerable ***** foreign attacks in ways we never thought, except maybe in science fiction novels or movies with special effects. ***** said that when they turned on the television that morn*****g, they thought they were seeing a movie or some special effects. But once we knew it was real, it ***** not just physical mutilation of our landmarks: ***** was mutilation ***** our souls.

Still, we love our ***** country and world, maybe more then ever before. So on that day and in the months afterward, we tried to "praise" it, as Zagajewski's title urges. Our ***** had been mutilated by ***** *****s themselves, and others ***** might seek to imitate their actions. Although this ***** ***** the original meaning of Line 11 (an interesting numerical coincidence) of "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" (it was written long before September 11) we now "heard ***** executioners sing joyfully"during the aftermath of the ***** 11 attacks, like when Osama bin Laden gloated about the "success" of his efforts.

***** aspect of the poem is the author's immigrant status. In ***** past, immigrants to America saw America unmutilated, unsullied, and unpersecuted, especi*****y compared to the homel*****s (***** Zagajewski's then-Communist Poland) ***** ***** *****re fleeing. For example, in lines 4-5, Zagajewski makes reference to:

The nettles that methodically ********** the abandoned homesteads ***** exiles.

And, for that matter, even when one has "seen the refugees heading nowhere"