Source:Ewa Gajer, ‘‘Polish Poet Wislawa Szymborska,’’
inHecate, Vol. 23, No. 1, May 1997, pp. 140–42.
SOURCESBrent, Frances Padorr, Review ofPoems: New and
Collected, 1957–1997, by Wisl⁄awa Szymborska, in
Boston Review, Vol. 23, No. 3, Summer 1998, http://
boston review.net/BR23.3/brent.html (accessed January
6, 2009).
Carpenter, Bogdana, ‘‘Wisl⁄awa Szymborska and the
Importance of the Unimportant,’’ inWorld Literature
Today, Vol. 71, No. 1, Winter 1997, pp. 8–12.
Gajer, Ewa, ‘‘Polish Poet Wisl⁄awa Szymborska,’’ in
Hecate, Vol. 23, No. 1, May 1997, pp. 140–42.
Grol, Regina, Introduction toAmbers Aglow: An Anthol-
ogy of Contemporary Polish Women’s Poetry, edited by
Regina Grol, Host Publications, 1996, pp. xxi–xxxvi.
Hirsch, Edward, ‘‘Wisl⁄awa Szymborska: Female Polish
Poet and 1996 Nobel Laureate,’’ inWilson Quarterly,
Vol. 21, No. 2, Spring 1997, pp. 110–11.
———, ‘‘Wisl⁄awa Szymborska: Rapturous Skeptic,’’ in
Responsive Reading, University of Michigan Press, 1999,
pp. 102–14.
Klejnocki, Jarosl⁄aw, ‘‘Polish Poetry in the Last Twenty
Years of the Twentieth Century,’’ Adam Mickiewicz
Institute, http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/
es_poezja_2020 (accessed January 6, 2009).
Lukowski, Jerzy, and Hubert Zawadzki, ‘‘Independence
Gained and Lost, 1914–1945,’’ ‘‘Communism and the
Cold War, 1945–1989,’’ and ‘‘A New Republic, 1989–,’’
inA Concise History of Poland, Cambridge University
Press, 2006, pp. 217–80, 281–318, and 319–40.
Matywiecki, Piotr, ‘‘A Review of Events in Polish Poetry
at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries,’’ Adam Mick-
iewicz Institute, February 2004, http://www.culture.pl/
en/culture/artykuly/es_przeglad_wydarzen_poetyckich
(accessed January 6, 2009).
Otfinoski, Steven, ‘‘Poland Today,’’ inPoland, Facts on
File, 2004, pp. 51–121.
‘‘Polish Presidents,’’ President of the Republic of Poland,
http://www.president.pl/x.node?id=436 (accessed Janu-
ary 6, 2009).
Santilli, Kristine S., ‘‘The Redemptive Gestures of
the Poetry of Wisl⁄awa Szymborska,’’ inThe Enigma
of Good and Evil: The Moral Sentiment in Literature,
edited by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Springer, 2005, pp.
729–48.
Smith, Dinitia, ‘‘Competing Versions of Poem by Nobel-
ist,’’ inNew York Times, October 21, 1996, http://query
.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E1DE1630F932
A15753C1A960958260 (accessed February 6, 2009).
Szymborska, Wisl⁄awa, ‘‘Some People Like Poetry,’’ in
Poems: New and Collected, 1957–1997, translated by Sta-
nisl⁄aw Baran ́czak and Clare Cavanagh, Harcourt, 1998,
p. 227.
———, ‘‘The Poet and the World, 1996,’’ translated by
Stanislaw Baran ́czak and Clare Cavanagh, inNobel Lec-
tures: From the Literature Laureates, 1986 to 2006, New
Press, 2007, pp. 144–49.FURTHER READINGBlaszak, Danuta, ed.,Contemporary Writers of Poland,
Dorota Silaj Publishing, 2008.
Blaszak’s anthology contains selections from
recent Polish poets and writers. The introduc-
tion comments on the impact of Communism
on Poland’s writers.
Forrester, Sibelan, Magdalena J. Zaborowska, and
Elena Gapova, eds.,Over the Wall/After the Fall: Post-
Communist Cultures Through an East-West Gaze, Indiana
University Press, 2004.
This book is a collection of essays on the
evolution of cultural life in post-Communist
countries. The introduction by the editors
extensively references the work of Szymborska
and provides an overview of the cultural chal-
lenges faced by post-Communist countries such
as Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic.
Gillon, Adam, and Ludwik Krzyzanowski, eds.,Intro-
duction to Modern Polish Literature: An Anthology of
Fiction and Poetry, Twayne Publishers, 1964.
In the introduction to this volume, Gillon and
Krzyzanowski provide an overview of Polish
literature from medieval times through the
immediate post-World War II era. Written
from an understanding of Polish literature as
it existed when still under Communist gover-
nance, the introduction offers a foundation
from which the nuances of recent Polish poetry
may be more fully grasped.
Zamoyski, Adam,The Polish Way: A Thousand-Year His-
tory of the Poles and Their Culture, Hippocrene Books,
1993.
Zamoyski’s highly regarded history details the
political, economic, cultural, and social develop-
ments in Poland through the late 1980s and
places Polish history in the larger European
context.Some People Like Poetry