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Language In Wislawa Szymborska's The End And The Beginning

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Plato’s words, “only the dead have seen the end of war,” are echoed in the poem, “The End and the Beginning”. By employing techniques of repetition, diction, symbols, syntax, caesura, enjambment, visual imagery, metaphor, and personification, Wislawa Szymborska reminds us that the end of war does not signal the end of suffering. Instead, post war marks a new chapter narrating the arduous process of physical and emotional reconstruction. The voice that paints the grim portrait of war and its aftermath was born at the time of World War II. As the Poles, including Wislawa Szymborska, were under control of Nazi occupation, they lost their freedom and were imprisoned in their own country. Wislawa Szymborska’s direct encounter with war has made this poem more credible, as she speaks from truth and experience. She has taken the serious theme of war and expressed …show more content…

Throughout the poem, there is repetition of “someone”, stressing that “Someone has to clean up”, “Someone has to push the rubble”, and “Someone has to get mired”. “Someone” is utilised to enumerate the number of broken things that need to be mended, but to also urge that someone must take responsibility and pick up the broom. She does not specify this “someone” to emphasize that anybody can fill this position. However, Wislawa by applying specific detail such as “pushing the rubble to the side of the road”, “rehanging a door” or “glazing a window”, to being entangled in “sofa springs” , the poem offers the audience a magnifying glass zooming into the level of devastation. The destruction evokes an image similar to the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, while war has reduced homes and roads to “scum and ashes”, the setting of the poem provides an opportunity to press reset or offer space for a fresh

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