Sound in Wincenty Pol’s landscape descriptions

One of the characteristics of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century was not only the development of philosophy and natural sciences, but also an increased tendency of discovering the World. Travelling became a common trend at that time. Its consequence was a very rich literature, which reported the impressions of taken expeditions. Observations concerned different aspects of the then life, but of the greatest interest were the descriptions of landscapes, which were done by the way of drawings, paintings or literary works. Wincenty Pol is considered to be the precursor of landscape descriptions of Poland. He perceived the landscape not only as a romantic poet but also as a scientistgeographer. During his life he had made many voyages and research expeditions, discovering Poland within its pre-partition frontiers. Very rich literary and scientific production of Wincenty Pol was deeply analysed both by literature historians, linguists and nature scientists. For geographers especially precious are his landscape descriptions combined with scientific observations. Authors of those analyses accentuate incredible quickness of perception of an author of „Pieśni o ziemi naszej” and his great talent in operating with space and colour. However, they completely omit acoustic effects, which in Pol’s literary and scientific works play an important role. From the landscape description point of view, the most precious are his letters written during voyages to his wife Kornelia and two volumes of „Obrazy z życia natury”. In his descriptions of polish lands one may hear cracks, roars, bells, birds singing, wind whistling and even the silence of the night on the step. Below is the example of step landscape painted by sound: […] Rustle of these reeds troubled with the wind gives a unique hum, which cannot be compared neither to sough of woods, nor with the sough of waters – hard, rough, unpleasant, sometimes drawling and wistful, strangely coming into line with the view of this land and with the fatherland of tombs […] („Obrazy z życia i natury” – Ze stepu p. 198). Acoustic effects are here very suggestive, strongly involving imagination of a reader. Wincenty Pol as a geographer and land researcher was under the visible influence of Aleksander von Humboldt, the great traveller and one of the founders of a modern geography. In Humboldt’s reports of his journey to the New World, which he made at the end of the 18th century, inter alia sounds of Amazon jungle are perfectly captured. In his later works he had been proving that sense of hearing in research of natural phenomena played a very important role. This great scientist is being considered to be the pioneer of contemporary acoustic ecology movement, which aims at the perseverance of natural environmental sounds by way of the recordings. Wincenty Pol could with the great talent of a poet – scientist, include word expression of nature sounds as an important element to the landscape description