SOURCE: Romano, Carlin. “Polish Poet Wisława Szymborska, 73, Wins Nobel Prize for Literature.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (3 October 1996): 100.

In the following essay, Romano collects responses to Szymborska's 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature and touches on her principal poetic themes.

Wislawa Szymborska, a 73-year-old Polish poet whose bittersweet lines have inspired punk-rock lyrics and an enigmatic movie, was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday in Stockholm.

Called the “Mozart of Polish poetry,” Szymborska is perhaps Poland's most famous female writer, but before now had been relatively unknown outside her homeland.

In awarding the prize to the shy and reclusive widow, the Swedish Academy in Stockholm praised the “ease with which her words seem to fall into place.”

They are words that the late director Krzysztof Kieslowski drew upon when he made Red, his mysterious film about a judge, a model and two young lovers, based on the poem...