Estranged Flowers : Plant Symbolism in Antonia Pozzi’s and Krystyna Krahelska’s poems

Having lived in the same historical period, but raised in different countries, the Italian poetess Antonia Pozzi and the Polish poetess Krystyna Krahelska share a similar view of nature. In their works, an important role is played by plant symbolism, which not only is influenced by literature, folklore, and mythology, but is also subject to personal reinterpretations of traditional and established meanings. This common point derives from them having similar literary education, from analogous experiences as young women writers (Pozzi committed suicide at the age of 26, Krahelska was killed during the Warsaw Uprising at the age of 31), and from a close, to some extent, poetical sensibility. The paper focuses mainly on the role played in their poems by plants as metaphors of the Self, as figurative images of blossoming life and ineluctable death, and as a language to describe erotic desire and unrequited love.