Tematem rozprawy jest Cyprian Norwid - jego koncepcja poety i poezji, która powstała w wyniku konsekwentnego określenia się polskiego twórcy wobec przeobrażeń literatury europejskiej XIX wieku. Tytułowa starość dotyczy przede wszystkim "miejsca", jakie zajmuje autor Vademecum w historii literatury. Książka podejmuje pytania o przynależność niezrozumiango za życia poety do współczesnych mu formacji, prądów i nurtów.

Polish text with a summary in English. This book is dedicated to Cyprian Kamil Norwid - his conception of a poet and of poetry. The "old age" of the titlde concerns the place which the author of Vademecum occupies in the history of literature. From the story about the Old Poet energes a contemporary Norwid who points to the topicality (topical character, up-to-dateness) of the formula of classicism in poetry. In the centre of attention is this writer's attitude to tradition and also to these phenomena which, like irony or symbol marked (determined) the perspective of development of 19th century literature. The main assumption of the book is a conviction that Norwid's choices concerning aesthetics and world-views (Weltanschauung) were formed (created) in a vast (wide) current (trend) of reversal (retreat) from Romanticism in France during the flourishing (flowering, developemnt) and twilight of the Second Empire.