Possibilities by Wislawa Szymborska summary

Possibilities by Wislawa Szymborska is a simple and direct poem which shows her personal preferences. But one can interpret different meanings while one reads it. The speaker decides to choose one thing over the others. The speaker can be either identified with the poet or she can be a distant one.

The poem begins by saying that the speaker prefers movies. May be she prefers movies either over books or plays.

 Then she says that she prefers cats. Cats have a particular attitude when compared to dogs. Dogs are dependent on their masters.  But cats wish to stay independent.

She prefers the oaks along the Warta. This is an ambiguous sentence. One can stress on the 'oaks' or 'Warta'. Anyway her love for nature and love for homeland is understood. She loves nature, especially oak trees that stands on the bank of the river Warta.

She prefers reading the books of Dickens to Dostoevsky. Dickens works say the stories of common man. He gives importance to the working class. Dostoevsky wrote about the elite class.

She prefers loving people to loving mankind as a whole. She loves a comparably small group around her. She cannot love people whom she does not know.

She prefers keeping a needle and thread in hand. It help to save herself in case of emergency situation. She can repair her clothes on her own. She wishes to keep herself safe.

She prefers colour green. Green is usually associated with nature. So we can interpret that it may be her love to nature that she depicts here.

The speaker prefers not to maintain a reason to blame on. Human beings have the habit of finding out reasons to blame on in their failure.  But the poet do not want to have such reasons. Her success and failure are from her own deeds. So finding out causes and reasons should be avoided. 

She prefers exceptions. She cannot love everything and everyone. Some things should be kept away from her.

She prefers to leave early. She do not want to work according to social rules. She cannot work according to rules made by others.

She prefers to talk to doctors about something else. Usually people talk to daughters about illness and death. But the poet want to talk about something else, may be something hopeful. 

She prefers old fine-lined illustrations. Her love for tradition as well as simple things is visible here. (Old- ancient/ tradition) (fine-lined - simple. Not complicated)

The poet prefers absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems. She believes that it is better to write something than to be mute.

She prefers nonspecific anniversaries as far as love is concerned.  She wants to celebrate all days without any reasons.

She prefers moralists who promise her nothing. She wants no reward in return for being moral. (Heaven/ ideal world as a reward for being moral is criticized here)

She prefers "cunning" "kindness" to over-trustful kind. She wants to be cunning as well as kind. Not everyone can be trusted. So she asks to be cunning. 

She prefers the earth in civvies(civilians). There should not be people in military uniforms. We can find policemen or soldiers if there is any problem. The speaker thus mean that there should not have much problems in the society.

She prefers conquered countries to conquering countries. She loves the oppressed not the oppressor.

She prefers to have some reservations. She prefers to keep only someone in her life. She wish to keep something as her preference and give up something else.

She prefers hell of chaos to hell of orders. She does not want to have complete discipline in her life. There should be something without order. Moreover,  we have to note here that, she prefers hell and not heaven.

The speaker prefers Grimm's fairy tales to the front pages of newspapers. Fairy tales have happy endings and newspapers are full of negativity or violence. She prefers fairy tales where every problems are solved and there is a happiness. 

She prefers leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves. Leaves without flowers can be found in nature. There are plants that do not have flowers but are covered with leaves. On the otherside the artificial flowers do not have leaves on them. It may also be read as flowers that are plucked from the plant.  The speaker loves nature and that is evident here.

She prefers dogs with uncropped tails. She want to see it in a natural way.

She prefers light eyes because her eyes are dark. Light eyes refer to less suffering. The poet suffered a lot especially during the World War II. Her eyes are dark and it shows her sufferings. She wish to have light eyes, that is, she do not want to suffer a lot.

She prefers desk drawers for keeping small things.

She prefers many things which she has never mentioned in this poem to the things that she never said. She have many choices in her life. She said something in this poem or in some other works. She has also left something unsaid.

She prefers zeros on the loose. She prefers those that are not ordered to those that are lined up behind symbols.

She prefers the time of insects to the time of stars. Insects can be found during the day when there is light. Stars are found during the night in darkness. 

She prefer to knock on wood which is natural. She may be against electric bells here. 

She prefers not to ask how much longer or when. She prefers to wait until the time is over. 

Finally the speaker says that she prefers keeping in mind the possibility that existence has its own reason. She wish to believe that there is a reason for existing. 

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This may not be perfect in grammar or sentence structure. I just wanted to provide the meaning of this poem for exam purpose for degree students.