Maybe All This Szymborska Poem

Our curiosity towards the metaphysical is considered to be exclusively human; our self-awareness, identity and purpose form our humanity. Instead of offering solace to self-doubt, Szymborska revels in ambiguity and uncertainty implying humans merely exist without an objective purpose or special significance. She questions the existential in her poem Astonishment and Maybe All This to reflect the absurdity of existence as well as human ignorance in attempting to answer it. In Astonishment she poses a series of questions about her own existence, leading to the eponymous astonishment rather than a definitive answer. In Maybe All This she suggests with uncertainty that we may exist as an experiment, presenting a meaningless existence in which human value is lost.
Szymborska communicates human insignificance in the universe by associating the wide expanse of eternity to the frailty of the human condition, conveying …show more content…
The poet appears to imply that there might be more value in the trivial occurrences of life and existence and how despite our insignificance on a cosmic scale existence still poses human value. Szymborska adopts a humorous tone in the last stanza as she illustrates the captivation of higher powers to the triviality of human existence, as seen when she contrasts the “big screen” and “little girl” imagery which evokes physical humor. With the use of the imperative “look!” effectively raises the tension but it turns into humor as we realize the triviality on the screen. Similarly she plays with overstatement as the persona claims” get the boss … he has got too see this”, how bigger cosmic forces are “enraptured” by the frivolous aspects of our reality. The absurd situation implying that perhaps the value of higher powers is unreliable and inconsequential and the value humans personally experience of much greater value than “The Boss’s”