SOURCE: Greenlaw, Lavinia. Review of Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997, by Wisława Szymborska. New Statesman 128, no. 4433 (26 April 1999): 47-48.

In the following excerpted review of Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997, Greenlaw mentions the dark humor, simplicity surrounded in artifice, and tantalizing wisdom of Szymborska's poetry.

Wislawa Szymborska was little known but widely admired when her reputation was dramatically consolidated by a Nobel prize in 1996. As a child, she attended illegal classes in Nazi-occupied Krakow and she later worked on a Polish literary journal for almost 30 years, so it shouldn't be surprising to see what a conscientious writer she is. Her poems appear so open, so friendly, that it's hard to grasp the length to which she goes to remind us of their artifice. It's like being captivated by a picture while the artist is trying to direct your attention towards the frame. The effect is rarely stultifying; more...