Rzeka w czarnoromantycznym imaginarium: „Zamek kaniowski” Seweryna Goszczyńskiego

The subject of the present study is the image of river in the epic poem by Seweryn Goszczyński (1801−1876) The Castle of Kaniv (1828), which falls in line with the so called Dark Romanticism. The said current developed in the literature of English, German, French and Polish Romanticism. It was characterized mainly by extreme aesthetic effects, the symbolism of day and night, frenetic effects, pessimistic vision of human beings, nature, and history. Goszczyński significantly deepens this image of the world in Dark Romanticism by introducing considerably extensive aquatic symbolism, above all, river symbolism. It is mainly related to the geographical and cultural reality of Ukrainian lands, where the poet comes from. Thus the augmentation of the poetic role of the river, the Dnieper in particular.