The End and the Beginning and Hitler’s First Photograph by Wisława Szymborska are two poems that share thematic elements concerned with time, war, and the invisibility of evil. The poems will be analyzed and contrasted with the central theme and each other. The thesis of this work suggests that both works by Szymborska illuminate the duality of time, both as reciting historical patterns with ease, such as the aftermath of war, and being completely untelling of events to come, such as the transformation of an innocent baby into a mass murderer.
The End and the Beginning by Szymborska recounts the reconstruction of affected areas after a war. The particular imagery refers to the effects of the Second World War, the pushing of rubble, the collection of corpses, and miring in sofa springs and glass. However, the poem begins with “after every war, someone has to clean up” (Szymborska, lines 1-2), which is the focal point of the poem. Wars exist within a universal timeline as outlined by Szymborska. She illuminates a process in which the war demolishes nations, the press and media become disinterested at its end, and as rebuilding begins, the nation becomes populated with individuals who knew little or nothing of the war (Szymborska, lines 1-4). Here Szymborska refers to the generations that will inhabit the heritage which they did not live (lines 39-42). Birth and innocence become a prevalent theme at the end of the poem and will be especially vital in understanding the thematic analysis of both works by the author.
The second poem, also by Szymborska, Hitler’s First Photograph , provides various imagery of Hitler as a newborn and is heavily contrasted by allusions to his future as a dictator and contributor to a genocide. The poem suggests uncertainty through statements that wonder if Hitler could have been a doctor, priest, or worked at the Opera House in Vienna (Szymborska, lines 3-7). Only his present as a child is known in the poem that creates an illusion of the past. Hitler as a newborn is referred to as a little boy with teensy hands, a little angel, and a lucky fortune. Szymborska recalls how no omen of death or signs of the future prior to his birth were visible (line 13), which supports her thesis that no person is born evil. The normalcy of Hitler’s youth is supported through images of him being alike with other children in family albums and prone to regular child-like behaviors of crying when waiting too long for the photographer to take a picture.