The Motifs of the Apple and God in the Poetry Collection "The Fourth Guard" (2004) by Halina Tvaranovich

Abstract

This article is aimed at the contextualization and analysis of, first and foremost, Halina Tvaranovic as a researcher and poet in the circles of the Belarusian borderland tradition within the territory of the Polish Republic and, secondly, of the motifs of the apple and God in the context of representing plants and religious symbols and concepts that are prominent in her work, most especially, in her third poetry collection, The Fourth Guard. In order to achieve this goal, we have selected a series of elements that shape the poetry in the aforementioned book, considered the author’s semantics, style, and background, and evaluated the literary and culturally significant of these elements in their context. We have taken into account the parallels and links present within the book, as well as their relationship to the poet’s other works and their connections to other poets within the literary processes of the Podlasie region and Belarusian-language literature in a broader scope. Our analysis has shown us that nature and divinity come together in Halina Tvaranovic’s poetry, forming a holistic picture that can be extrapolated to the concept of the Homeland (both big, in an all-Belarusian sense, and small, in a regional meaning), which the poet, we conclude, has adopted from the literary tradition of the Belarusian minority in Poland.