Czeslaw Milosz: Poems Glossary

Czeslaw Milosz: Poems Glossary

incantation

a spell, a magic formula

pulping of books

destruction of books

austere

bare, plain, earnest

discord

disharmonious noise, though also disagreement or conflict

congealed

frozen, paralyzed

Philo-Sophia

a play on the word "philosophia", Latin for philosophy

daimonion

a personal protective spirit in Ancient Greece

leafing through

flipping or browsing through

duress

pressure, force, control

paroxysms

seizures, spasms

malignant

destructive, mean-spirited

gullible

naive, very trusting and easy to fool

Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza, a prominent Dutch philosopher leading the way to the Enlightenment

Leonidas

King of Sparta who died fighting the invading Persian army

perspicacious

clever, observant, sharp-thinking

exude

to give off, to discharge, to leak out

sycophantic

grovelling, subservient

paradisal

wonderful, like a paradise

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