The End and the Beginning

Szymborska subverts the standard conventions of war poetry—a genre that primarily focuses on the immediate violence of armed combat—by placing “The End” before “the Beginning” in the title of the poem. Szymborska uses this juxtaposition to emphasize the effects, or aftermath, of the war, suggesting from the onset of the piece that the ramifications of war are much more concerning than the physical conflict itself. The first two lines of “The End and the Beginning” state that: “After the war / someone has to clean up,” situating readers in a future “after” the direct combat has ended (Lines 1-2). However, “the Beginning” marks a period of post-war reconstruction and healing in which the resultant devastation must be reckoned with. Szymborska expands the poetic discourse of war poetry to include the lasting impacts of violent, human conflict, revealing that the process of rebuilding a war-torn community is just as traumatic as the war itself.

The speaker of “The End and the Beginning” bears witness to the recovery efforts of the affected community, sarcastically acknowledging that “things won’t / straighten themselves up, after all” (Lines 3-4). Szymborska characterizes the members of this unspecified region as commonplace through her repeated descriptions of physical labor.