Helplessness. On the Margins of Wisława Szymborska’s Poems

Beata Przymuszała

Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu

Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of representing helplessness in Szymborska’s poetry, showing various ways of describing this state, as well as its importance for the whole output of the poet. In love poems it is very often presented with the theatrical metaphore “acting oneself”: when nothing can be done at the moment of parting, the poems’ speaker quite often “enters the role” of the former “I”, simultaneously having a feeling of lack of control over what is happening with him/her. Thereby he/she underscores the automaticity (and “artificiality”) of his/her own behaviour. Helplessness is also expressed through enumeration: several specifications, which are expected to cover the feeling of inability to cope with the situation (as in the case of the poem Clothes, dedicated to a visit to a doctor, which we are afraid of). The feeling of helplessness, a state difficult to describe, in Szymborska’s texts becomes an important sign of a human codition: imperfect, not always able to cope with challenges. The description of this state reveals simultaneously emotional nature of the poems written by the author of People on a Bridge.

Keywords:

polish poetry, poetic expression, helplessness, Wisława Szymborska