Abstract
The present article discusses the motif of ageing in the collection of poems Plain Themes by the highly esteemed Czech writer Jan Neruda. The theme of coming to terms with aging is especially apparent in the initial version of the collection - a lyrical cycle of 1879, which centres upon autumn natural motifs, corresponding with the situation of the speaker of the poems (as well as the author himself).
Apart from traditional reactions to the aging process (melancholy, reca-pitulation, sorrow for the bygone youth), we can observe a continuing striving for erotic experience, testifying to the speaker's desire to fully enjoy the remaining time of his life. At the end of the cycle, Neruda attempts at coming to terms with death by means of two powerful poems, conceived as an authentic, almost diary-like account of the horrible sense of the inevitable end.
In the definitive book version of the cycle, the topic of aging is incorporated into a new con-cept of the collection, which is the confrontation of the linearity of life and the circuitous course of the natural cycle. The reflection upon aging is placed in the "Autumn" section of the collection, whose melancholic and recapitulative character is even more prominent (whereas the erotic themes have been relegated to the "Summer" section).
The death of the speaker is conceived in a more distanced way, making use of a rich allegorical apparatus. The book version also introduces the topic of immortality, whose source is not, rather surprisingly, a work of art of everlasting value, but that of procreation.
Neruda thus confirms his anti-aesthetical attitude, which makes him stand out in the context of the prevailing Parnassian orientation of Czech poetry of the period.