Szymborska Ioc
Szymborska IOC:
Everyday, we take many norms for granted. We take certain things in life as standards and often encounter them without giving so much as a second thought. One of these things is the belief that the value of life of a human vastly outweighs that of an animal – or in the case of this poem, an insect. In ‘Seen from Above’, Szymborska underscores the ingrained interpretation of the pecking order of life, which we take for granted.
What does this mean? We as humans do not stop and ruminate the tragedy of the death of a bird, or mourn the passing of an ant. We see the life of a human as higher up on the pecking order than that of animals, and while we may not consciously register this belief everyday, it does exist, and we do subscribe to this belief that is deeply ingrained in our mindsets.
But before I go on, make no mistake: Szymborska’s poem does no seek to lash out and declaim against this belief of superiority. Instead, she hopes to bring such a widespread, yet unspoken belief to light, and compel us to reconsider an opinion commonly and without question, held as true.
‘Seen from Above’ is an exploration of our appropriation of value above other beings by human standards. From the very start, Szymborska uses the title to allude to the supposed pecking order of living things. ‘Seen from Above’ almost seems to suggest the superiority with which we, as humans, look and consider animals.
The entire poem is rife with contrasts between our perception of the death of a person and that of animals and insects.
At the outset, Szymborska offers a dry depiction of a beetle which she observes has died. However, in so doing, she points out something that most of us would be quick to ignore – the difference in attitude with which we treat the death of a human and that of the beetle. She observes that, ‘Instead of death’s confusion, [there is] tidiness and order’. Here, Szymborska subtly makes a comparison: rather than the din and confusion, commotion
Everyday, we take many norms for granted. We take certain things in life as standards and often encounter them without giving so much as a second thought. One of these things is the belief that the value of life of a human vastly outweighs that of an animal – or in the case of this poem, an insect. In ‘Seen from Above’, Szymborska underscores the ingrained interpretation of the pecking order of life, which we take for granted.
What does this mean? We as humans do not stop and ruminate the tragedy of the death of a bird, or mourn the passing of an ant. We see the life of a human as higher up on the pecking order than that of animals, and while we may not consciously register this belief everyday, it does exist, and we do subscribe to this belief that is deeply ingrained in our mindsets.
But before I go on, make no mistake: Szymborska’s poem does no seek to lash out and declaim against this belief of superiority. Instead, she hopes to bring such a widespread, yet unspoken belief to light, and compel us to reconsider an opinion commonly and without question, held as true.
‘Seen from Above’ is an exploration of our appropriation of value above other beings by human standards. From the very start, Szymborska uses the title to allude to the supposed pecking order of living things. ‘Seen from Above’ almost seems to suggest the superiority with which we, as humans, look and consider animals.
The entire poem is rife with contrasts between our perception of the death of a person and that of animals and insects.
At the outset, Szymborska offers a dry depiction of a beetle which she observes has died. However, in so doing, she points out something that most of us would be quick to ignore – the difference in attitude with which we treat the death of a human and that of the beetle. She observes that, ‘Instead of death’s confusion, [there is] tidiness and order’. Here, Szymborska subtly makes a comparison: rather than the din and confusion, commotion