This paper examines how the demand for freedom was fulfilled in Milan Jesih’s poetry from different periods, paying particular attention to the origin of the label ludism. In the broader perception, language play was central to Slovenian ludism, but it flourished without a clear link to Derrida’s concept of the play of signification or Heidegger’s idea of being as play. A comparison of Jesih’s poetry collections Uran v urinu, gospodar! (Uranus in the Urin, Master!), Soneti (Sonnets) and Maršal (Marshal) shows that all three books open up space for carnivalisation, as they connect the high with the low, and the comical with the serious. This happens against the background of belief in the autonomy of art. Freedom remained an imperative in Jesih’s poetic oeuvre, which made his poetry comparable to play. The notion of ludism thus seems appropriate both in conceptual and stylistic terms.
