next time powerless by his coming down from heaven Kapłan (Priest), Rozmyślania Pana Cogito o odkupieniu (Mr. Cogito's Reflections on Redemption). The first God is rather disliked – as all abstractions – indeed; everything that is valued in this poetry is small, tangible and close. After all, it is nothing else but senses, especially the most unerring touch, which give us the most reliable support in everyday life. Moreover, in this poetry, one has never reconciled oneself to the collapse of the sacred, as well as to the world of chaos. Against everything, being loyal – even to dead God – make sense. For want of no other refuge, we are supposed to seek power in us to save the world from chaos and nothingness Napis (Inscription). In his later works, there is less such pagan declarations, yet the need for reconciliation is being articulated more and more clearly. Compared to the poems from Epilog Burzy (Epilogue to the Storm) and his previous works, Puste Niebo Pana Cogito collected not very favourable critics' opinions. Poetic style In his works he presented the 'reflection-intellectual' perspective, with stress on human beings and their dignity, to the background of history, where people are almost irrelevant cogs in the machine of fate. He often used elements of Mediterranean culture in his works. "Herbert's steadily detached, ironic and historically minded style represents, I suppose, a form of classicism. But it is a one-sided classicism (....) In a way, Herbert's poetry is typical of the whole Polish attitude to their position within the communist bloc; independent, brilliant, ironic, wary, a bit contemptuous, pained." – A. Alvarez, Under Pressure (1965) "If the key to contemporary Polish poetry is the selective experience of the last decades, Herbert is perhaps the most skillful in expressing it and can be called a poet of historical irony. He achieves a sort of precarious equilibrium by endowing the patterns of civilization with meanings, in spite of all its horrors." – Czesław Miłosz, Postwar Polish Poetry (3rd ed., 1983) "There is little doubt that at this writing Zbigniew Herbert is the most admired and respected poet now living in Poland. (...) Polish readers have always revered poets who succeed in defining the nation's spiritual dilemma; what is exceptional in Herbert is that his popularity at home is matched by a wide acclaim abroad." – Stanisław Barańczak, A Fugitive from Utopia (1987) In modern