Rating: 
Summary: Nice little collection from a Nobel Prize winner
Review: ...Containing over eighty poems from seven original collections, this book serves as a well-rounded and pleasant introduction to Szymborska's work. This is a good choice for anyone interested in good poetry, women under communist regimes, or Polish literature.
Rating:
Summary: Nice little collection from a Nobel Prize winner
Review: ...Containing over eighty poems from seven original collections, this book serves as a well-rounded and pleasant introduction to Szymborska's work. This is a good choice for anyone interested in good poetry, women under communist regimes, or Polish literature.
Rating:
Summary: ...How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
Review: Ahh... where do I begin to explain why I admire, adore, and revel in Szymborska's poetry? It all began in roughly 1996-97 when I learned that this Polish poet, previously unbeknown to me, had been awarded the Nobel Prize. While I don't consider the Swedish Academy to be the ultimate authority on good literature and count only several of the previous prize winners among my favorite authors (Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, O'Neill to name a few), I anticipated that an encounter with her poetry is bound to be special. The brief biographical sketches I then read and her photograph emitted wisdom, modesty, and wit. Or at least that what I think I must have sensed at the moment. In any case, after reading several of Szymborska's poems on-line (at a wonderful site called 'Poems from the Planet Earth') I was irrevocably enamored with her verses. Since then I have read and reread them on occasions too numerous to be counted, and I've read them to friends and strangers.I find that Szymborska writes with great clarity, never failing to gracefully walk the fine line between excessive (hmm..) eloquence and ascetic laconism. Her metaphors and characterizations are incredibly precise, and her poetry is rich with aphorisms. At the same time, it has somewhat of a haiku-like quality. Whether writing of grand and global matters or of minute things and creatures she is critical yet humane, and -- very genuine. The poems are sharp and witty but never cynical. Simply put, Szymborska's work is sheer brilliance from a poet with love for the human and the inanimate. I wonder whether the paperback scheduled for release this autumn will contain new poems... On a final note -- all translations I have had the privelege to read (Maguire, Baranczak, Cavanagh) are marvelous -- an occurence that is very unusual, and, hence, very precious.
Rating:
Summary: ...How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
Review: Ahh... where do I begin to explain why I admire, adore, and revel in Szymborska's poetry? It all began in roughly 1996-97 when I learned that this Polish poet, previously unbeknown to me, had been awarded the Nobel Prize. While I don't consider the Swedish Academy to be the ultimate authority on good literature and count only several of the previous prize winners among my favorite authors (Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, O'Neill to name a few), I anticipated that an encounter with her poetry is bound to be special. The brief biographical sketches I then read and her photograph emitted wisdom, modesty, and wit. Or at least that what I think I must have sensed at the moment. In any case, after reading several of Szymborska's poems on-line (at a wonderful site called 'Poems from the Planet Earth') I was irrevocably enamored with her verses. Since then I have read and reread them on occasions too numerous to be counted, and I've read them to friends and strangers. I find that Szymborska writes with great clarity, never failing to gracefully walk the fine line between excessive (hmm..) eloquence and ascetic laconism. Her metaphors and characterizations are incredibly precise, and her poetry is rich with aphorisms. At the same time, it has somewhat of a haiku-like quality. Whether writing of grand and global matters or of minute things and creatures she is critical yet humane, and -- very genuine. The poems are sharp and witty but never cynical. Simply put, Szymborska's work is sheer brilliance from a poet with love for the human and the inanimate. I wonder whether the paperback scheduled for release this autumn will contain new poems... On a final note -- all translations I have had the privelege to read (Maguire, Baranczak, Cavanagh) are marvelous -- an occurence that is very unusual, and, hence, very precious.
Rating:
Summary: an outstanding book
Review: As another reviewer said, even if you don't have the tatse for poetry, you will like this book. The poems are accesible, yet rhythmic. The poems are personal, yet universal. I also enjoy that this is a collection of work from 1957-1993. Her work grows with her. As a writer, I particularly enjoyed "The Joys of Writing", and "Funeral". Buy it for yourself, and buy it as a gift.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful summation of the smallness of life
Review: At first I thought Wislawa Szymborska took the mundane and made it magical. Then I realized it was exactly the opposite that she did with her poetry. Her poems start grand and end small, rather than the more typical inflation of something minute into a Truth. Take, for example, her poem Nothing Twice, a poem about how feelings and life can be so different from one day to the next: No day copies yesterday, / no two nights teach what bliss is / in precisely the same way, / with exactly the same kisses. Szymborska is one of the great explainers of the Truths; she can explain Honor to a dunce and Love to a child. She uses the analogy of a resume to show what is most important in life: Concise, well-chosen facts are de riguer. / Landscapes are replaced by addresses, / shaky memories give way to unshakable dates. / Of all your loves, mention only the marriage; / of all your children, only those who were born. In the presence of her work, I feel like a child, but one who is sitting raptly at his mentor¹s feet, eyes wide, as the teacher reduces Concepts and other such mouthfuls to bite-size morsels. And this is why her poetry amazes and, ultimately, works.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: For those of you who have never had the taste or temperament for a book of poetry, View With A Grain Of Sand is the book that just might change you forever. These remarkably readable poems by the 1996 winner of the Nobel Prize for Poetry, Wislawa Szymborska, gives the perfect voice to ideas that have been quietly alive within us since we were first able to personalize a thought. Our most grandiose moments - birth, death, love - are placed in a common perspective with words of such simplicity as to make the message even more profound. Indeed, it is the very use of this everyday language that makes these poems so powerful.Ms. Szymborska eases humanity off its pedestal. The stars, the sun, the passing of time, and even a grain of sand will continue to go on very well without us, and will do quite well, thank you. Is it new when we are told that we are not the center of the universe - not the most important creation? Surely, by now, many of us accept this. What makes these poems so poignant is that they bring this realization to a deeper level.From the title poem View With A Grain Of Sand, "We call it a grain of sand, but it calls itself neither grain nor sand. It does just fine without a name, ..." Or, from True Love, "True love. Is it normal? is it serious, is it practical? What does the world get from two people who exist in a world of their own?" What makes Ms. Szymborska such a wonderful poet is that her poetry is so enjoyable to read. At first, revelations appear through no great intellectual effort on the part of the reader. They are discovered through the poet's beautiful use of language and our personal identification with her themes. Second and third readings lead to an even deeper personal involvement. These are poems you want to share with others. This is the greatest praise.
Rating:
Summary: Simply elegant & touching works
Review: I am taking a Women in Literature class and one of our assignments was to choose a living female author and read one of her works. Because I am of Polish descent, I decided to read Ms. Szymborska's poems and I bought this collection. Her poems are very touching and direct. I appreciate the honesty that she uses and how some of her poems were derived from various world events (i.e. Vietnam, the Holocaust, etc.) and I could sense her obvious disdain for the Communism that had taken over Poland. My favorite poem from this collection is "Utopia". I could just read all of her poems over and over. It's a shame you don't hear much about her. I recommend that anyone read these poems and you will be deeply touched.
Rating:
Summary: Words of truth and beauty.
Review: I never cared much for poetry, but this book has changed my mind. I - who some might consider uneducated - am curious about what is experienced, within us and without us, in life. Still, I find a lot of poetry difficult to understand since an education from Oxford or Harvard seems a requirment to get through it. This wasn't the case with the poems in this book. I'm able to digest much of the words and pharses in Szymborska's poetry which evoke different images, feelings and thoughts as easily as reading fictional prose. I even had shivers sent through my body reading a poem in this book. This existential jolt happens only rarely and only when I listen to music which affects me deeply. This is poetry I can appreciate.
Rating:
Summary: Words of truth and beauty.
Review: I take this book with me wherever I go. Szymborska's sentences run through my head like music. If you have never read her poetry, this is the book to start with--the translation team is excellent. Don't deprive yourself of the treat of reading this book!
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