Świat nakręcony. Zegar jako figura natury i obrotu spraw ludzkich w poezji Wacława Potockiego

The article shows the presence of the motif of a mechanical clock in Wacław Potocki’s poetry and it analyses as well his poetic reflection inspired by complexity of the clock mechanism. Chronometers, like other achievements of craftsmanship or culture, are treated by the poet as allegorical illustrations of the truths of the Christian faith and moral principles, as well as artful results of interpretations of the order that permeates both nature and the regularities of human affairs. The author of the paper shows that in the poems of the poet from Łużna, a watch becomes a “meditative piece” that inspires cosmological, anthropological and religious reflection. In Potocki’s writing, the clock mechanism stimulates reflection on the laws of the great mechanism of the universe and the civilization, and it reminds of the principle of entropy and its consequences as inevitable future of the world.