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Wislawa Szymborska Poland (1923 - 2012) Timeline Secular or Eclectic Poems by Wislawa Szymborska Books - Links |
When World War II broke out, Wislawa Szymborska was still a student, and had to continue her education in secret. Toward the end of the war she found work with the railroads, protecting her from being deported to the forced labor camps in Germany. She also found occasional work as an illustrator.
With the end of the war, she began her university studies, focusing on language, literature, and sociology. It was then that she connected with the Polish writing scene and published her first poems.
Because of difficult finances, she eventually had to drop out of school. She married in 1948 (and later divorced, in 1954). During this time she worked as a secretary and illustrator for a magazine.
With the rise of Soviet influence over Poland in the post-war era, Wislawa Szymborska, like many artists and intellectuals, initially embraced or, at least, accepted the new Soviet-style society. But she gradually distanced herself from official ideology which increasingly showed itself to be foreign-dominated bureaucratic totalitarianism and not supportive of the people. By the 1980s she was contributing material for underground samizdat publications in opposition to official ideology.
She spent much of her career as a columnist for a Polish literary review magazine, and many of her essays have been gathered together and published in book form.
In 1996 Wislawa Szymborska was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Although her poetry is loved throughout the world, she has published fewer than 250 poems.
Poems by Wislawa Szymborska
- A Contribution to Statistics
- A Few Words on the Soul
- Among the Multitudes
- Children of Our Era
- Classifieds
- I'm Working on the World
- Life While-You-Wait
- Miracle Fair
- Nothing Twice
- Possibilities
- The Ball
- The Camel
- Three Oddest Words
Recommended Books: Wislawa Szymborska
Related Links
Wislawa Szymborska - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wislawa_Szymborska
Brief biography, bibliography, and links.
Wislawa Szymborska - Poets.org
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/340
Short biography and a few sample poems.
Wislawa Szymborska Poems - Poet Seers
http://www.poetseers.org/nobel_prize_for_literature/wislawa_szymborska/library/
Several poems online.
Polish Nobel Laurate Wislawa Szymborska Poems
http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/arts_culture/literature/poetry/szymborska/poems/link.shtml
Quite a few poems online, many with the original Polish side-by-side with the translations.
Wislawa Szymborska - Writers from Poland
http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-literature-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/wislawa-szymborska
Biography on a website exploring Polish writing and literature.