“A Dream Conjured up by Magical Tones” — Erotic Oneirology in Kazimierz Tetmajer’s Poetry

The article treats about the issue of erotic oneirology in Kazimierz Tetmajer’s lyric poetry. Erotic
dreams indicate transgressive dimension of the oneiric space and reveal most intimate desires of Tetmajer’s
dreaming lyrical ego. “Transcending to the other”, the desire to commune spiritually and quasi-somatically
with the idealised, ethereal mistress is the most important feature of the discussed dream visions. The
poet of The Young Poland poet assigns a very important role to the erotic oneirology. In one of the poems,
the lyrical ego highlights that its vision was “pronounced by the magic tones” of imagination and depicts
the most beautiful vision of his soul. The article discusses the construction of the dreamed figures, whose
ontic existence is not entirely defined. They represent hybrid creations — on the one hand, the desire
for their concretisation is clearly defined, on the other hand, their affiliation to the sphere of imaginative
projection is emphasised (“ethereal-somatic hybrids”). The article also discusses the theme of metaphysical
approach to physicality and the transgressive dimension of dreaming. Tetmajer’s homo transgressivus
spasmodically looks for a way beyond the “corset” phenomenal reality which creates a chain of restrictions
and absurd prohibitions. To dream, according to Tetmajer, is to fulfill a desire to be intimate with the
longed-for mistress, to lose oneself in the love ecstasy of body and soul.