A Study Guide for Wislawa Szymborska's "Possibilities"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Wislawa Szymborska's "Possibilities," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535831277

Book preview

10

Possibilities

Wisława Szymborska

1986

Introduction

In her 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech, Wisława Szymborska declared her appreciation for the phrase I don't know, which she claims is small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include spaces within us as well as the outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended. Szymborska explained that this confession defines restless, questing spirits who continually ask questions about their world. This questioning and searching spirit is at the center of much of her poetry, including her poem Possibilities. Szymborska's questioning of dogmatic platitudes in this poem suggests possibilities for the reader's own determination of personal freedom. The poem can be read as a statement regarding the oppression Poland suffered under Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) when these foreign powers took control of the country during the twentieth century, or it can be seen as functioning beyond a political context, expressly dismissing in more general terms a devotion to any type of restrictive ideology. The poem presents a list of preferences made by the speaker that set up contrasts between her own choices and those proscribed by conventional beliefs. The contrasts challenge these conventions and illuminate the absurdity of blindly following them. Possibilities is one of the selections in Szymborska's Poems New and Collected: 1957-1997, published in