SOURCE: Christian, Graham. Review of Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997, by Wisława Szymborska. Library Journal 123, no. 6 (1 April 1998): 92-93.

In the following review of Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997, Christian finds Szymborska's collected works in English an “essential” volume.

“I'm working on the world,” says Polish poet Szymborska. In this new retrospective collection of her works, a “revised, improved edition.” It may seem superfluous to praise a Nobel Laureate in literature, but Szymborska is a splendid writer richly deserving of her recent renown. While it seems likely that the academy noticed her for her unflinching examination of torture and other wrongs inflicted by repressive regimes, what seems extraordinary about Szymborska is her humility, her openness to wonder. Her motto, she says in the Nobel lecture included in this volume, is “I don't know,” a surprisingly fruitful starting point. She is capable of stunning lyrical images (“0 swallow, cloud-borne thorn...