Cyprian Norwid, Klaskaniem mając obrzękłe prawice… [Their Hands Swollen with Applause…]

Michael Lavery (University of California, Los Angeles); Aliaksandra Razor (University of California, Los Angeles); Dane Reighard (University of California, Los Angeles); Yelena Severina (University of California, Los Angeles)

Ed. by Roman Koropeckyj, University of California, Los Angeles
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.8.3: Polish Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Ewa M. Thompson (Rice University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1858

Places

France (Country of Origin)
Poland (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

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 The offer to publish was soon withdrawn, however, due to financial difficulties and the start of the Austro-Prussian War; Norwid’s subsequent attempts to see the poem into print were unsuccessful. “Klaskaniem…” did not appear...

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1730 words

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 14 December 2025.]

Cyprian Norwid, Klaskaniem mając obrzękłe prawice… [Their Hands Swollen with Applause…]

Dates

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Resources

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