Wislawa Szymborska was a Polish poet who often wrote poems about her life, but many mistake her poems to be politically motivated. She lived during the cold war and often examined topics of happiness, death, and time. Szymborska often uses poetic techniques to add meaning to her poems, which helps the poem to “speak” to the readers. The use of these techniques also supplement the underlying themes presented, which make her poetry very powerful and moving. Szymborska’s use of different poetic techniques helps to drag the reader into the speaker 's world, which effectively keeps the reader entertained and wanting to continue reading.
Szymborska utilizes repetition in her poems to help emphasise a point or idea, which causes the reader to become …show more content…
The poem “The Terrorist, He’s Watching” uses the repetition of time to keep the reader glued to the poem until the bomb finally explodes. As time ticks away the clock strikes “Thirteen twenty exactly/This waiting, it’s taking forever./ Any second now./ No, not yet./Yes, now./ The bomb, it explodes”(28-33). The way the last stanza is structured helps the reader to both visualize the time ticking away on the bomb and the impatience of the speaker as he or she waits for the explosion. The way a poem is structured affects a poem 's meaning as much as the content. In her poem “Epitaph” she writes a small, one stanza poem about what she wants on her tombstone. The length of the poem is representative of the speaker 's personality, as the speaker believes she will end up in “The plain grave? There’s poetic justice in it”(5). The speaker believes she will not have a lasting impression on the world, hence why the poem written about what she wants on her tombstone is not extravagant. The poem’s simple structure is representative of the speaker 's personality, which helps in the reader 's understanding about the speaker 's perception of herself. The length also allows the reader to analyze the speaker 's choice of words to describe herself. The structure of Szymborska’s poems adds an effect to the poem, which keeps the reader entertained and wanting to keep
Szymborska utilizes repetition in her poems to help emphasise a point or idea, which causes the reader to become …show more content…
The poem “The Terrorist, He’s Watching” uses the repetition of time to keep the reader glued to the poem until the bomb finally explodes. As time ticks away the clock strikes “Thirteen twenty exactly/This waiting, it’s taking forever./ Any second now./ No, not yet./Yes, now./ The bomb, it explodes”(28-33). The way the last stanza is structured helps the reader to both visualize the time ticking away on the bomb and the impatience of the speaker as he or she waits for the explosion. The way a poem is structured affects a poem 's meaning as much as the content. In her poem “Epitaph” she writes a small, one stanza poem about what she wants on her tombstone. The length of the poem is representative of the speaker 's personality, as the speaker believes she will end up in “The plain grave? There’s poetic justice in it”(5). The speaker believes she will not have a lasting impression on the world, hence why the poem written about what she wants on her tombstone is not extravagant. The poem’s simple structure is representative of the speaker 's personality, which helps in the reader 's understanding about the speaker 's perception of herself. The length also allows the reader to analyze the speaker 's choice of words to describe herself. The structure of Szymborska’s poems adds an effect to the poem, which keeps the reader entertained and wanting to keep