BRONIEWSKI, WLADYSLAW

born Dec. 17, 1897, Plock, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire [now in Poland] died Feb. 10, 1962, Warsaw, Pol. Polish poet of exceptional emotional power and impact. The son of a country squire, Broniewski joined the antitsarist Polish legions under Jsef Pilsudski in April 1915; but in 1917, after the Russian Revolution, he was interned by the Germans for his refusal to serve in a Polish force under their command. When Poland's independence was restored, he enlisted in the new national army and fought the Soviets in the Russo-Polish War of 191920. Later he began to write revolutionary poems espousing the cause of the working class. His first volume, Wiatraki (1925; The Windmills), was followed by Dymy nad miastem (1927; Smoke over the City) and Komuna Paryska (1929; Paris Commune). Upon the outbreak of World War II he fled to the Soviet Union, where he was arrested and sent to a forced-labour camp. Liberated after Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1941, he joined the Polish army under General Wladyslaw Anders, which in 1942 was moved to the Middle East. He spent the remaining war years in Jerusalem, where he published Bagnet na bron (1943; Bayonet On). In 1945 he arrived in London, where he wrote Drzewo rozpaczajace (The Despairing Tree). He then returned to Poland, where he was acclaimed by the communists as a prodigal son. New collections of verse followed, including Slowo o Stalinie (1949; The Word on Stalin), written under party pressure characteristic of the era, and Anka (1956), composed after the death of his daughter.