Norwid's Visual Metaphors on the Example of “Fortepian Szopena” (“Chopin’s Pianoforte”)

Norwid’s masterpiece—“Chopin’s Pianoforte” could be—in my opinion—an important argument in the long debate on whether direct qualities are evoked in a work of literature more by metaphorical means or without them.1 “Chopin’s Pianoforte” is a poem, in which a pictorial element plays a very important role. However, it is achieved mostly through means different than metaphorical ones. Clearly concrete elements are particularly dominant in the fragment of visionary and parabolic character. In the fourth stanza this is a symbolic picture of the classic Virtue realized through direct use of language.2 In the seventh stanza this is a parabolic representation of “an ear of corn”. However, the most intensive visuality can be found in the final part of the poem, recalling the picture of events in Warsaw connected with the final throwing of the eponymous pianoforte onto cobble-stones.