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"Wislawa Szymborska is known as the first lady of Polish poetry. Her poetry is elegant, witty, and delightfully intelligent. Szymborska is that rare phenomenon: a poet of universal appeal. Her poems—beloved by both demanding intellectuals and high school students—introduced humor, irony, and wit into the dreary reality of Communist Poland"(Meczylska).

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Her major literary works cross a wide range of topics and display many of the different phases of writing styles, but are titled as: "Dlatego zyjemy", "Wolanie do Yeti","Sól", "Sto pociech", "Wszelki wypadek", "Wielka liczba", "People on a Bridge", "Koniec i poczatek", "Poems: New and Collected, 1957-1997", and "Miracle Fair"(Meczylska).

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"Szymbroska is known as the trailblazer for women in Polish poetry. She survived the Nazi occupation of Poland. Her poetry is described as universal and has been translated into nearly all European languages, and Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Hindu. She has received numerous awards for her poetry, including: the City of Kraków Award, the Polish Pen Club Award, the Solidarity Award, the Jurzykowski Foundation Award, the Kallenbach Foundation Award, the Goethe and Herder Prizes, and the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1996"(Meczylska).

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"Szmborska's writing style is characterized as making readers playfully take a step back and question their own experience or original knowledge. Linguistically, her use or debunking of well known phrases gives her writing comedic sarcasm. She utilizes a combination of humor and seriousness to capture attention and then lead you down a philosophical rabbit hole" (Meczlska).

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"Wislawa Szymborska is known for her communist-influenced poetry in her early career in post-WWII Poland. She later transitions to more witty, humorous poems with philosophical undertones. She has stuck to this style since then"(Meczylska).

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WeOjeZyctC442g-vubWUg1pj2NaqUBkjrp9Fkbq6O2c/edit?usp=sharing

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Image Source: Wikipeadia

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Wislawa Szymborska Cracow, Poland October 23, 2009 

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Source: Wikimedia

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Map of where she was born Bnin, Kórnik, Poland

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Source: Google Maps

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As Delaney, writes about Szymborska's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, she recalls a quote about inspiration, "Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It’s made up of all those who’ve consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners—and I could list a hundred more professions.… Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know,”' (Delaney).

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After every war

someone has to clean up.

Things won’t

straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble

to the side of the road,

so the corpse-filled wagons

can pass.

Someone has to get mired

in scum and ashes,

sofa springs,

splintered glass,

and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a girder

to prop up a wall.

Someone has to glaze a window,

rehang a door.

Photogenic it’s not,

and takes years.

All the cameras have left

for another war.

We’ll need the bridges back,

and new railway stations.

Sleeves will go ragged

from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,

still recalls the way it was.

Someone else listens

and nods with unsevered head.

But already there are those nearby

starting to mill about

who will find it dull.

From out of the bushes

sometimes someone still unearths

rusted-out arguments

and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew

what was going on here

must make way for

those who know little.

And less than little.

And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass that has overgrown

causes and effects,

someone must be stretched out

blade of grass in his mouth

gazing at the clouds. (Szymborska,"The Beginning")

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"Nothing can ever happen twice.

In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.

Even if there is no one dumber,
if you're the planet's biggest dunce,
you can't repeat the class in summer:
this course is only offered once.

No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses.

One day, perhaps some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.

The next day, though you're here with me,
I can't help looking at the clock:
A rose? A rose? What could that be?
Is it a flower or a rock?

Why do we treat the fleeting day
with so much needless fear and sorrow?
It's in its nature not to stay:
Today is always gone tomorrow.

With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we're different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are," (Szymborska, "Nothing Twice").

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Love at First Sight

Golden Anniversary

Consultation

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Wislawa Szymborska accepting her Nobel Peace Prize  in 1996

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Image Source: New York Times

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Some of Szymborska's letters showcasing her handwriting.  

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Image Source: Universität Leiden

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The house Wislawa Symborska was born in. 

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Image Source: Wikipedia