Abstract

Many contemporary critics have been interested in Martin Heidegger's phenomenology and have recognized its importance for literary theory. As a continuation of theoretical explorations, this study undertakes a discussion of poetic visions of reality in the works of contemporary hyper-realistic poets, Czesław Miłosz and John Ashbery. It breaks new ground by applying the key Heideggerian terms, Dasein, space, time, and culture to explore the reality created by and/or alluded to in the contemporary poetry of Miłosz and Ashbery. In its final synthesis, the study proposes the comprehensive concept of ontological transcendence as a model to analyze multidimensional contemporary poetry.