SOURCE: Freedman, John. “The Possibilities and Limitations of Poetry: Wisława Szymborska's Wielka liczba.” Polish Review 31, nos. 2-3 (1986): 137-47.

In the following essay, Freedman interprets the title poem of Szymborska's collection Wielka liczba—translated as “A Great Number”—as a work representative of the poet's principal themes and techniques.

Wisława Szymborska's poetry is—above all—marked by a striking universality which allows for widely variant readings. In his review of Szymborska's 1976 collection,¹ A Great Number (Wielka liczba), Stanisław Barańczak primarily stressed the sociological aspect of her poetry as it is revealed in her use of language. Her language and images, he argues, are nearly always concrete and situational. In his introduction to her 1977 Poetry (Poezje), a retrospective collection, Jerzy Kwiatkowski, relying heavily on a vocabulary sprinkled with philosophical terminology, presents her primarily as an existentialist poet, though he does admit, “… that doesn't mean at all...