1 WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA AND MODERNISM IN POLAND By Wlodzimierz Bolecki l Let us start with a short calculation: Szymborska has published some 300 poems so far. And how many pages of commentaries have been published to those poems? If we take into account the several books, hundreds of reviews and dozens of articles, we would probably arrive at several thousand pages of commentary. We might then draw the conclusion that every poem by Szymborska has already been analyzed, interpreted or quoted several times over. In sum, everybody who writes about Szymborska must be repeating something that somebody else has already observed. I must therefore declare that I am indebted to every critic of Szymborska's work. Now, let us look at Szymborska's work from a different angle. When characterizing the evolution of Polish post-war poetry, literary experts mention several authors whose works mark the most distinctive conceptions of poetic language. Years ago, Jan Bloski contrasted the poetry of Julian Przybo (considered avant-garde) with that of Czeslaw Milosz (considered post symbolic). Later on, Milosz was regarded as in opposition to Miron Bialoszewski (who was fascinated by the mechanisms of language). Today, such comparisons acquire new names. The turning-points in Polish poetry are said to be marked by Boleslaw Lemian, Julian Przybo, Czeslaw Milosz, Tadeusz Róewicz, Zbigniew Herbert and Miron Bialoszewski. How remarkable that this map of artistic extremes in Polish poetry does not include the name of Wislawa Szymborska! And - moreover - nobody seems to be surprised. This is the paradox with which I would like to begin. Szymborska attracts critics by her masterly language and intellectual originality. But, at the same time, her work - on the artistic level - does not clearly contrast with any other types of poetry written in Polish, such as the work of the poets I have just mentioned. Seen from this perspective, Szymborska's work does not belong to any trend, group or school; neither does it form a homogenous poetic model. It cannot be located at the crossroads of any other types of poetry. Its place is to be found "in between" extreme artistic propositions, while - at the same time and all scholars agree on this - her poetry is wholly unique and cannot be compared to any other in Poland. 2 The subject of my lecture is Szymborska's place in the framework of Polish