Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s “Klaskaniem mając obrzękłe prawice…” [“Their Hands Swollen with Applause…”] (1858), also known, mistakenly, as “Do potomności” [“To Posterity”], is the opening poem to his poetic sequence
Vade-mecum. The poem serves as a personal apologia, programmatically illustrating the poet’s aesthetic ideals while articulating his anxieties about poetic posterity.
The complex history of the poem’s publication reflects the peculiar circumstances of Norwid’s belated reception and unhappy fate during his lifetime. He wrote the poem in 1858 and hoped to publish it along with the entirety of Vade-mecum, which he submitted to the Leipzig publisher F. A. Brockhaus in early 1866. The offer to publish was soon withdrawn, however, due to financial
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Citation: Lavery, Michael, Aliaksandra Razor, Dane Reighard, Yelena Severina. "Klaskaniem mając obrzękłe prawice…". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35900, accessed 23 November 2024.]