At the age of 94, she left Ursula Kozioł – 1 of the most outstanding figures of Polish post-war literature, poet, author and editor, whose voice has shaped the sensitivity of generations of readers for decades. Information about her death, which occurred on Sunday 20 July 2025, made the full cultural environment sad. Her departure is all the more touching, as just a year earlier, in 2024, her extraordinary work was honored with the most crucial Polish discrimination – Literary Prize “Nike”.
The death of Ursula Kozioł is not only the symbolic end of a certain era, in which poesy was a form of conscience and deep reflection on the world. This is, above all, a immense failure for Polish culture, which says goodbye to the author of extraordinary clarity of thought, restraint and precision of language. Her poems, although profoundly personal, had a universal dimension, becoming poetic diagnoses of reality that would stay with us forever.
Who was Urszula the Goat? A voice from the state that became the heart of Wrocław
Urszula Kozioł was born in 1931 in Rakówka, Lublin. It was from the state that the unique sensitivity to the rhythm of nature, everyday life and hard life became the foundation of her work. After the war her destiny inextricably intertwined with Lower Silesia. Initially she worked as a teacher in Bystrica Kłodzka to yet settle in Wroclawwho became her city for life.
It was in Wrocław that her talent flourished fully. For years she co-created and edited a legendary writing ‘Odra’which was 1 of the most crucial intellectual and artistic centers in the second half of the 20th century. She besides directed the literary department in the monthly magazine “Reviews” and led the Wrocław Culture Centre. Her commitment to the city made her not only an outstanding artist, but besides a key figure of the Wrocław cultural scene, mentor and authority for many younger artists.
Works that avoided easy answers and fashionable simplifications
She debuted in 1953, and her works gained designation very rapidly and began appearing in the most crucial literary writings specified as “Poetry”, “Cultural Weekly” or “Modernity”. Her poesy was distinguished from the very beginning by extraordinary maturity and intellectual depth. Ursula Kozioł She never gave in to literary fashions or ideological pressures. Her writing was profoundly personal, but at the same time analytical and distant.
The characteristic feature of her kind was language precision and avoiding easy metaphors. The poet observed changes in language and society with remarkable insight, creating poems that were both subtle and highly accurate. Until fresh years, she remained creative, as evidenced by her last, enthusiastically accepted poesy volume ‘Raptular’, issued in 2023. She thus showed that her voice had lost nothing of her strength and actuality.
Late but full deserved acclaim. Nike Award as a career culmination
Throughout her life, Urszula Kozioł was appreciated and rewarded, although the biggest laurels came comparatively late. Her account included specified prestigious awards as the Kościelski Award, the Wrocław Poetics Prize Silesius or the Wrocław City Award. She was besides honoured with the honorary doctorate of the University of Wrocław, which was an expression of appreciation for her contribution to Polish discipline and culture.
But this Literary Prize “Nike”, awarded in 2024, became a symbolic culmination of her remarkable career. This most crucial Polish literary discrimination was a proof that her work, despite decades, is inactive resonating with force and is crucial to knowing the present. Receiving Nike was a minute of large triumph that confirmed her position as 1 of the most crucial figures in the past of Polish literature.
The end of the era in Polish poetry. What did Ursula Goat leave behind?
The death of Ursula the Goat is the symbolic end of an era. The author left, for whom the poetic word was an instrument of knowledge, a form of conscience and a way to save what is most crucial in man. However, her legacy is much more than the volumes of poems she left on the shelves of libraries. This is primarily the sensitivity that she instilled in generations of readers and authors.
Her silent but penetrating voice was an inspiration for many writers and writers who in her work found a pattern of intellectual integrity and artistic courage. Urszula Kozioł left behind a void that cannot be filled, but at the same time she gave us tools to realize the planet – a precise language, the ability to empathize and the discord of clichés. Although her voice is silent, his echo will echo in Polish culture for many years.
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Ursula the Goat is dead. Polish literature in mourning after the failure of Nike's winner
