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Well-known in her native Poland, Wisława Szymborska received international recognition when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. In awarding the prize, the Academy praised her “poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments...
- Wisława Szymborska
Readers of Szymborska’s poetry have often noted its wit,...
- Wisława Szymborska
‘The End and the Beginning’ by Wislawa Szymborska reflects on the aftermath of war, exploring themes of destruction, resilience, and the cyclical nature of history. The poet vividly portrays the challenges of post-war reconstruction, the burden of responsibility, and the fading of collective memory over time.
- Summary
- Structure & Form
- Literary Devices & Figurative Language
- Line-By-Line Explanation & Analysis
- Diction
- Themes
- Historical Context
- Similar War Poems
- Useful Resources
Szymborska’s “The End and the Beginning” in its essence is about the irreversible damage and destruction caused by war. Everyone is well aware of the gruesome acts of violence and cruelty that the advent of war unquestionably brings with itself. In her writings, Szymborska makes it a point to bring to light the gore and shattering images of everyth...
“The End and the Beginning” is essentially a war poem. A slightly different war poem that is dedicated to the ordinary people instead of the soldiers or army involved in the physical combat. It consists of a total of 47 lines, which are divided into ten short stanzas of varying lengths. The poem is written in free verse. A free verse poem is one, w...
On a closer inspection of Szymborska’s “The End and the Beginning,” readers come across the use of the following literary devices and poetic techniques that are essential to the overall meaning.
Lines 1-4
The first stanza of Szymborska’s “The End and the Beginning” presents the history of any and every war from a different perspective. In the ruinous post-war world, where everything has been reduced to ashes, the speaker begins to confront the gravity of her surroundings. She declares that there is a need to repair the damages and set things right, effective immediately. Her use of the word “every” in the first line also indicates that the nature of war has remained the same throughout history...
Lines 5-8
In this stanza, the speaker continues to elaborate on the grim portrayal of war. She cautiously informs readers of the magnitude of loss and suffering that the people living through wars experience. She also employs some of the most appalling images and clever language to illustrate the on-ground realities during such times of hardship. Szymborska’s approach to highlighting all menial jobs that must be accomplished one after another, after the repeated usage of “someone,” underlines the immen...
Lines 9-13
This stanza picks up once again enumerating that to see signs of any real progress “someone” must get up and take responsibility. Someone will have to trudge through sludge and ashes and continue clearing the fields for cultivation. In doing so, the speaker paints a distressing image of what the end of war looks like. This introduces readers to the harsh and hollow truths of war. The words “scum” and “ashes” are used to add a layer of bleakness to this all-consuming poem. Going further, Szymb...
The operating language or word choice of a piece of poetry is called poetic diction. It refers to the language, which is used in a way that distinguishes poetry from other forms of speech or writing. It includes the lexicon, intonation, syntax, and grammar that is deemed proper while writing poetry. The poet’s tone, language, and manner of conveyin...
Szymborska’s poem “The End and the Beginning” is not for the faint of heart. War, torment, mortality, human experiences, and time are recurring themes in her work. Along with these, there are also themes of courage, perseverance, and recuperation that are widely discussed in this poem.
Wislawa Szymborska penned “Koniec i początek” or “The End and the Beginning,” a 47-line, free verse poem, after the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. The translation of this Polish poem by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh first appeared in The New Republic on January 18, 1993. The original poem in Polish was published in the 1993 collectio...
“A Brave and Startling Truth” by Maya Angelou— In this piece, Angelou talks about her faith in humanity and her hope for a better world.“They are hostile nations” by Margaret Atwood— In this poem, Atwood depicts the suffering of people worldwide during the Cold War.“A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London” by Dylan Thomas — This piece is written in reaction to the death of a child in the Second World War.“Dreamers” by Siegfried Sassoon — This poem sheds light on the themes of the horrors of trenches and the disillusionment of soldiers.Check Out Poems New and Collectedby Wislawa Szymborska — This definitive, complete collection of Szymborska’s poetry is expertly translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh.Check Out How to Start Writing (and When to Stop): Advice for Writers by Wislawa Szymborska — This witty how-to guide includes the pieces of advice for budding writers Szymborska wrote for Literary...- 1 min
Readers of Szymborska’s poetry have often noted its wit, irony, and deceptive simplicity. Her poetry examines domestic details and occasions, playing these against the backdrop of history. In the poem “The End and the Beginning,” Szymborska writes, “After every war / someone’s got to tidy up.”
Wisława Szymborska’s poem “The End and the Beginning” is a complex and thought-provoking work that delves into the themes of war, destruction, and the cyclical nature of life. Through a careful analysis of the poem’s structure, language, and imagery, this article seeks to explore the depths of Szymborska’s writing and uncover the ...
Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) was the 1996 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the author of over 20 volumes of poetry, including Map: Collected and Last Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). After every war someone has to clean up.
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Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska (Polish: [viˈswava ʂɨmˈbɔrska]; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent (now part of Kórnik in west-central Poland), she resided in Kraków until the end of her life.
