In the article are juxtaposing and interpreting two temporally distant poetry volumes: the Renaissance Treny by Jan Kochanowski and the Strzęp całunu of the con-temporary poet Andrzej Mandalian. Both collections are a poetic account of the traumatic inner experience, which is the loss of a loved one. In the comparative perspective, I consider first of all the topic of mourning, the motifs used by the two poets, the method of articulation of the topic, as well as genealogical issues. Both Kochanowski and Mandalian show the very essence of suffering and define reality through suffering in the poetic phrase. I am interested in the identity of both discourses, their common enunciation and the resulting universality and timeless expression of the experience of the “metaphysics of loss”.