Dec 19, 2009

Astonishment | Themes

The Inscrutable Mysteries of the World
Szymborska touches on a number of themes in her sixteen-line poem, but they all center around the idea of the unfathomable nature of the world in which humans—and indeed all beings—find themselves. The title of the poem itself, indicating that a possible reaction to the world when one takes a moment to think about it is “astonishment,” underscores that it is a place of amazement and wonder. The fact that the poet asks questions that are not answered (or can even be answered, perhaps), emphasizes too that the world’s mysteries...