EN
This is an attempt at describing and analyzing Stanislaw Rózewicz's late phase, which was heralded by the publication of his volume of poems 'Plaskorzezba' (Bas-Relief) in 1991. The first part of the article contains a review of the reception history of Rózewicz's poetry written since the early nineties. The review traces the emergence of a dominant style of critical appreciation of that phase of the poet's career and documents the critics' reliance on a handful of popular interpretative formulas. The second part of the article concerns itself with the ways in which Rózewicz addresses the issue of the social functioning of his poetry. It appears that in his poems the very term 'late phase' is subject to a radical and ironic scrutiny. In a similar way he treats the categories of decorum, good taste, gravity and mature wisdom that are believed to be appropriate for an Elder Poet. He pits against all those conventional expectations the experience of inner strife, lack of fulfilment, and progressive devaluation of words appropriated by the machinery of mass communication.