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View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

Wisława Szymborska

Paperback | Pages: 214 pages

Rating: 4.33 | 3912 Users | 260 Reviews

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Title	:	View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
Author	:	Wisława Szymborska
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 214 pages
Published	:	May 26th 1995 by Mariner Books (first published 1995)
Categories	:	Poetry. Cultural. Poland. European Literature. Polish Literature. Nobel Prize

Explanation Toward Books View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

Nobel poetry! This got under my skin!

I think I owe it partly to this collection that I started loving modern poetry and sharing this love with the next generation.

I remember a class when we read Szymborska's "Some Like Poetry". We took it apart, and wrote our own poems following the same idea and pattern. One student looked at me and said:

"But this doesn't have anything to do with Humanities!"

I remember being worried about this. Why could poetry not express the questions taught in Humanities? So I brought this small collection to class, and we read Szymborska's poem from 1956, titled "Two Monkeys by Brueghel":

I keep dreaming of my graduation exam:
in a window sit two chained monkeys,
beyond the window floats the sky,
and the sea splashes.

I am taking an exam on the history of mankind:
I stammer and flounder.

One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically,
the other seems to be dozing--
and when silence follows a question,
he prompts me
with a soft jingling of the chain.

After looking at Breughel's sad and beautiful painting, talking about the situation in Szymborska's home country in 1956, and analysing the different attitudes the two monkeys display, we all sat quiet for a moment, taking in the message from all those different perspectives.

We realised that it was easy to identify with the sarcastic monkey who was staring at the world, thinking it was not worth the effort to care. But all agreed that the other one, seemingly dozing, but then gently jingling his chain, loved mankind more, and had secret hopes for a different future. Otherwise he would not help out!

Ever since then, when I try to find my way through the maze of contemporary politics, I imagine being like the monkey prompting students with that soft jingling of the chain, reminding them of the course of history, that we are studying in the hope of one day making this world a better place. We cannot get rid of the chains of the past, but we can be better at passing the exam of the history of mankind in the future. And by passing that exam, we are less likely to repeat mistakes.

I can't imagine anything more powerful than the combination of Breughel's art and Szymborska's verse to make the chain of history come alive. The only other poet I have experienced in the same way is her fellow Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, whose Human Chain left a similar mark on me. When history is made tangible through the medium of poetry, it gets under your skin. Through its language and art it reaches you on an emotional level and enhances the factual, historical knowledge. From year to year, I have expanded the integration of poetry into my history units, and there is no end to the possibilities, once the initial hesitancy to "mix English and Humanities" is overcome. The chain is also a link. Heaney taught me that!

The way Szymborska's short, prosaic poems analyse her time and place in history and yet remain part of a universal, human quest for truth is simply breath-taking.

Love it! I'll jingle the chain to remind you all of this gem!

Describe Books Concering View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

Original Title:	Widok z ziarnkiem piasku
ISBN:	0156002167 (ISBN13: 9780156002165)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	PEN Translation Prize for Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh (1996)

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Ratings: 4.33 From 3912 Users | 260 Reviews

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Tortures Nothing has changed.The body is susceptible to pain,it must eat and breathe air and sleep,it has thin skin and blood right underneath,an adequate stock of teeth and nails,its bones are breakable, its joints are stretchable.In tortures all this is taken into account.Nothing has changed.The body shudders as it shudderedbefore the founding of Rome and after,in the twentieth century before and after Christ.Tortures are as they were, it's just the earth that's grown smaller,and whatever

I feel that poetry may be considered "wack" by anyone born after 1970, but, seriously, assholes, there is some good shit out there, e.g. this book. I know, I know, I know: where are the undead? where are the plastic explosions? where are the ersatz realities? Shove it all up your butt, Mugwumps! In an interview someone asked her why she didn't publish very frequently and the card replied, "I have a trash can in my home."

I chose this collection for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge task: "Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love". It contains poetry from various collections of Szymborska, spanning the years of 1957 and 1993. I was amazed that this poetry was translated, as it reads as if it were first written in English. It was interesting to see how the poet developed over the years, and how her themes became more serious - a lot of the later poems are related to death or war.

Sometimes the world goes a little more silent, and so it was yesterday when I heard of the death of Wislawa Szymborska. In her 88 years she had only published 400 poems, saying that she wrote many more, but always re-read the previous day's work the next morning: "Many," she added dryly, "don't survive." So this was a poet who was not prolific, nor had she had fallen in love with the sound of her own voice. Instead, each poem said something that mattered, and therefore the silence today is

Finjan que las cinco estrellas son diez. Reseña pronto.

Simply one of the worlds finest living poets. This collection came out right about when she won the Nobel Prize for literature and includes 100 poems that span her career from 1957 to 1993. My own preference is for her more recent work, a fine testimony for an artists continual improvement. The selections from her earliest work are interesting but those from 1976 on are more consistently compelling and memorable. She can write magic lines; some randomly nabbed examples: Theres nothing more

Nobel poetry! This got under my skin!I think I owe it partly to this collection that I started loving modern poetry and sharing this love with the next generation.I remember a class when we read Szymborska's "Some Like Poetry". We took it apart, and wrote our own poems following the same idea and pattern. One student looked at me and said:"But this doesn't have anything to do with Humanities!"I remember being worried about this. Why could poetry not express the questions taught in Humanities? So