The Sublime and the Beautiful in Joseph Brodsky's Venice Essay

This article is an interpretation of Joseph Brodsky's essay Watermark. Since this text does not have a linear composition (either discursive or in terms of events), strictly conceptual or analytical methods cannot be applied. In Brodsky's words, "for all its beauty, a distinct concept always means a shrinkage of meaning, cutting off loose ends. And the loose ends are what matter most in the phenomenal world, for they interweave." Nevertheless, there is still meaning, and it can be extracted by unweaving the fabric of the text and weaving it anew. This fabric is interlaced with Greek myths, biblical stories, philosophical ideas and binary oppositions. Without being conceptual, Brodsky's text is deeply philosophical and holistic. The poet strived to reflect the semantics of the world, which is understood as a rhetorical figure.