Peter Dale Scott at Church Life Journal:
This poem reads like a precursor to the decision to act (like Einstein) in the second “fragment” of “To Albert Einstein.” The poet, as if in a New Year’s resolution, has now decided that it is better to speak out dangerously than to be silent. But he has not yet settled on what he will say (i.e., make a clean break with the post-war Polish state for which he was still working).
It could even be that by writing the first “fragment” Milosz contemplated his enforced muteness, and recognized that he must correct it. His silence was a feature above all of his status as a diplomat. But this was precisely when his U.S. post was ending; and he was obsessed with the decision whether or not to defect and start a new life. But to defect would prolong indefinitely his separation from his Polish-speaking audience behind the Iron Curtain, a second and deeper reason why any cries from him could not be heard.
more here.
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