Photograph from September 11
By Wislawa Szymborska
Analysis
They jumped from the burning floors--
one, two, a few more, higher, lower. The photograph halted them in life, and now keeps them above the earth toward the earth. Each is still complete, with a particular face and blood well hidden. There’s enough time for hair to come loose, for keys and coins to fall from pockets. They’re still within the air’s reach, within the compass of places that have just now opened. I can do only two things for them-- describe this flight and not add a last line. |
In Wislawa Szymborska’s “Photograph from September 11” every sentence legitimately describes fear and terror, bring a memory of this tragic event and especially makes the reader remember the emotions they felt when watching the people falling or even jumping from the Twin Towers. When she states “Each is still complete/with a particular face/ and blood well hidden” Szymborska is expressing people should remember each individual who died in 9/11. In this poem she mainly focused in one aspect of this cataclysmic day, the image of the poor souls jumping from the flaming buildings. Szymborska's overall tone throughout the poem is trying to pay respect without describing how it ultimately ended for them. Wislawa Szymborska, is not American, she is from Poland and originally, this poem had been written in Polish. This certainly demonstrates the global effects that the terrorist attacks had. It was not only America affected, it was everyone in all parts of the world.
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