Guest Author - Jordan McCollum

Wrong Number
by Wislawa Szymborska

At midnight, in an empty, hushed art gallery
a tactless telephone spews forth a stream of rings;
a human sleeping now would jump up instantly,
but only sleepless prophets and untiring kings
reside here, where the moonlight makes them pale;
they hold their breath, their eyes fixed on some nail
or crack; only the young pawnbroker’s bride
seems taken by that odd, ringing contraption,
but even she won’t lay her fan aside,
she too just hangs there, caught in mid-nonaction.
Above it all, in scarlet robes or nude,
they view nocturnal fuss as simply rude.
Here’s more black humor worthy of the name
than if some grand duke leaned out from his frame
and vented his frustration with a vulgar curse.
And if some silly man calling from town
refuses to give up, put the receiver down,
though he’s got the wrong number? He lives, so he errs.

Analysis

The relationship between politics and poetry is often debated. Are they mutually exclusive? Not to Nobel Prize Laureate Wisława Szymborska. Her brave poetry and other works challenged the socialist government in Poland in the 1980s. While her poem “Wrong Number” lends itself to a classical textual analysis, it can also be interpreted in a political light.

To take a political look at the poem, we must consider the world context in which Szymborska wrote. Much of her literary career was spent under the socialist regime in Poland. While she was initially supportive of the regime and enthusiastic about its ideals, she became disillusioned and eventually worked to subvert that government.

During her rise to prominence in Polish letters, the world was engaged in the Cold War, with her homeland playing an important role. Szymborska describes this world as “caught in mid-nonaction.” Despite the tensions felt world wide, the world powers seldom made a move in their deadly chess game. Even the name of the Cold War is reflected in the contained world of the poem’s museum: empty, hushed.

The paintings, once great men and women, now the hollow portrayal of prophets and kings, are incapable of action. Despite the event that would spark an instantaneous reaction from a real human, these shells of their former selves don’t dare to take action. In a political climate heavily laden with the fear of the government, people become less likely to act, even if they would have in the past. When someone does dare to act, as the human caller does in this poem, rather than reacting in a natural way, those same people are paralyzed by fear.

In another layer of symbolism, the subjects of the paintings, the kings and prophets of the world, were “caught in mid-nonaction,” declining to act despite the desperate call of the people oppressed by socialist regimes. “Above it all,” they condescendingly look down their noses at the desperation of the socialist citizens.

Poetry can be successfully utilized to convey political messages. However, with “Wrong Number” by Wisława Szymborska, the subtle symbolism of the poem may lend itself better to a strict contextual analysis than a political one. However, when analyzing poetry, it’s always wise to take into account the world in which the poet lived.