“Fail better” or how to improve improvisation

Abstract

In this article, I show the relationship between philomathic occasional poetry and poetic improvisation. Based on the analysis of the autographs of two selected works – Jamb dla Jana II by Tomasz Zan and Odezwa spod stołu by Teodor Łoziński – I justify the thesis that jambs presented during name-day parties are examples of improvisations in writing. The analyzed works are intensified by the two most characteristic features of jambography – the dizzying speed of creation and the resulting underdevelopment, mediocrity of poetic expression. I pay attention to the complementation of linguistic and material codes, i.e. the enhancement of the given features included in the verbal layer of the works by the way they are written in autographs. In the second part of the article, I consider the possibilities of introducing modifications to works of an improvised nature – I introduce the category of “correction by repetition” and describe it, referring both to Jamb dla Jana II and Odezwa spod stołu, as well as to other texts left over from Philomath fetes.