Life over Death - some thoughts on Wislawa Szymborska's “On Death, without Exaggeration”

Growing up in Poland during the Second World War, it is easy to say that Wislawa Szymborska had experience with death. Being surrounded by death and destruction in her teenage years, Szymborska found a way to deal with death and remain hopeful. In her poem, “On Death, without Exaggeration,” Szymborska pokes fun at death and offers hope for humanity. The reoccurring personification used in Wislawa Szymborska’s poem “On Death, without Exaggeration,” takes power away from death.

Szymborska opens up the poem with the line “it can’t take a joke” (1). This immediately makes the reader ask the question “Who is ‘it’?” Szymborska does not answer this question until the second to last stanza when she finally refers to the subject by name. Opening up the poem by referring to death with the word ‘it’ immediately weakens Death. Szymborska is insulting Death by repeatedly refusing to use its name.  

In the first line of the poem Szymborska is degrading death by pointing out that Death has no sense of humor. By opening the poem with this line, Szymborska personifies death but immediately separates it from the rest of humanity. Using humor as the first trait to separate humanity from Death is an interesting choice. Szymborska might have used this personality trait first because the ability to have a sense of humor in unique to humans. This fact immediately isolates Death from the rest of humanity. In this context, Szymborska’s aim is to make Death less powerful and frightening. In just this first line, Szymborska brings death to life by using the concept of humor, but simultaneously separates it from humanity and takes its power away.         

In the next lines Szymborska continues listing actions that are easy for people to do but that Death is incapable of doing. Szymborska writes that death cannot “find a star, make a bridge, / It knows nothing about weaving, mining, farming, / building ships, or baking cakes” (2-5). In this section Szymborska is empowering humanity. The things listed here may seem insignificant but when you add everything together, a bigger picture is formed. The idea Szymborska is expressing is that every action one makes in life, even the trivial and insignificant ones, form together to create something that is more powerful than death. The effect of this comparison also makes Death seem less powerful because it cannot even do something as trivial as baking a cake. Here again, the author is putting humans above death; death can wipe out whole societies overnight, but it can’t bake a cake.

There is also a deeper meaning beneath these words. Coming back to the idea that it is the little things that add up to make life, Szymborska is continuing the image of death looking in on mankind from the outside. Like in the first line, where Death is first separated from humanity, the succeeding three lines reinforce the idea that Death an unwelcome guest and deserves to be in isolation. The first stanza sets the stage for Szymborska to make Death seem small and powerless by personifying the concept and then separating it from humanity.

Szymborska continues her attack on death by arguing that “it can’t even get the things done / that are part of its trade: / dig a grave, make a coffin, / clean up after itself” (8-12). In this stanza Szymborska introduces the idea that Death has a profession, “its trade.” Death’s trade is killing, and the author is saying that death actually needs the help of humanity. The only part of the process that Death takes responsibility for is the initial killing. Szymborska is saying that there is so much more to do than that. Death needs mankind’s help to handle a majority of the work. The idea that Death actually needs our help is another instance of Szymborska empowering humanity while making Death look weak. Here is another example of the author expressing the idea that death is not as all-powerful as everyone believes him to be. In this section the reader is also introduced to the idea that Death lacks a work ethic, another quality unique to humanity. By repeatedly pointing out exclusively human traits, like humor and work ethic, Szymborska is alienating Death from another angle.

The image of Death’s job is continued into the next lines as Szymborska continues her effort to diminish Death. “Preoccupied with killing,” Szymborska writes, “it does the job awkwardly, / without system or skill. /As though each of us were its first kill” (13-6). In other words, Death is obsessed with killing, but is not very good at it. He only has one job, to kill, and he can’t even do that right. Death is described as incompetent in an effort to take away the fear that usually comes along with death. These lines form the image of Death as an inexperienced killer, fumbling with his knife and tripping over himself. This new image of Death that the author creates is a much less frightening one than the classical “all powerful and unstoppable King of the Underworld.”

In the last line of this stanza Szymborska refers to humanity as “us.” The word choice here is significant for more than one reason. First of all, using the word “us” immediately groups all of humanity together. This is done to give strength to mankind. The word choice also further strengthens the goal of the author to alienate Death. When humanity faces Death together, Death losses his power to instill fear in others.

In the next section of her poem, Szymborska touches on the fact that humans defeat death countless times every day. “Oh, it has its triumphs,” admits Szymborska, “but look at its countless defeats, / missed blows, / and repeat attempts” (17-21). Szymborska is explaining that Death makes mistakes and often fails, that he is not all powerful. While Death does have many triumphs, countless people die every day, more people continue their lives. We defeat death everyday by simply not dying. Unlike the earlier attacks on Death, this section focuses more on the strength of humanity. Szymborska is offering hope in these lines, hope for people afraid of Death.

The next stanza brings the focus back to Death and continues towards Szymborska’s efforts to point out Death’s shortcomings. “Sometimes it isn’t strong enough / to swat a fly from the air. / Many are the caterpillars / that out crawled it” (21-4). Here Szymborska ridicules Death for not even being able to kill a fly. In this blatant insult Szymborska defiantly mocks Death. The lack of fear that Szymborska has is striking. There is a purpose to this unusual mockery and showcase of courage. To be so fearless of Death to be able to mock and insult it is inspiring. Szymborska is trying to inspire others to cease fearing Death by showing the reader that she is not. The purpose of this section is to illustrate that if Szymborska does not fear Death then neither should her readers.

Up until this next section of her poem Szymborska has focused on empowering humanity over Death but in this next section all of life is included in the fight against Death. “All those bulbs, pods, / tentacles, fins, tracheae, / nuptial plumage, and winter fur show that it has fallen behind / with its halfhearted work” (25-9). In these lines Szymborska is creatively encompassing all the forms of life. Szymborska argues that the simple fact that life continues day after day proves the fact that Death is falling behind because of his lack of skill. This is a very uplifting section and continues the theme of empowering life and inspiring hope in others.

In the last lines of the poem Szymborska writes, “As far as you’ve come / can’t be undone” (47-8). At first glance the meaning of this closing sentence may be unclear but when the meaning is uncovered, it becomes profound. Szymborska is explaining in this  line that that even though death may always be the end for all life, a person’s journey through life can never be erased. Life in itself is a victory over Death. Death may be able to end ones path, but he can never undo everything that someone has done and affected throughout his life. This final insightful observation on life and death by Szymborska is her most powerful tool to enslave Death.

Wislawa Szymborska’s poem “On Death, without Exaggeration,” is a call to arms. Szymborska is rallying her troops to fight against Death and his command over humanity. Szymborska’s tactic to take Death’s power of fear away is to personify the concept of death and then alienate and show its weakness. Why is Szymborska attempting this perilous task? Growing up in Poland during the Second World War, Szymborska was surrounded by death and was very likely afraid of it. In an effort to help others that share that fear, Szymborska gives offers her hope for humanity, in that mankind has the upper hand on death.

Works Cited

Szymborska, Wislawa. "On Death, without Exaggeration." Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. 5. John Schilb, John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 1609-1611. Print.