The Terrorist, He Watches

  Wislawa Syzmborska poem The Terrorist, He Watches takes a modern look on war poetry. Syzmborska uses the modern battlefield of cities and public places and the enemy of today, those who wish to disrupt peace through radical acts of violence. One of the big questions of the poem is who is speaking.
    Based on the title of the poem The Terrorist, He Watches the speaker can be two people. They can either be the terrorist himself watching over what he is about to bomb or a bystander watching as the terrorist sets up his evil act. While reading the poem, I leaned more towards the speaker being a bystander because of a single line in particular “The terrorist's already on the other side.” This line makes it appear as though someone is watching the scene unfold and has located the terrorist and is telling the reader where they are. This would make the most sense in the feel of the poem as to why would the terrorist be so concerned about who walks in and out of the bar.
    The second opinion of who the speaker could be is the terrorist. The speaker seems to know an awful lot about when the bomb is going to go off. Not only is the speaker very knowledgeable of the situation he appears to be watching with a very keen eye pointing out all the people walking in and out and how they look and their chances of survival.
    I think the magic of Syzmborska’s work is that either perspective works, and it is entirely up to the reader to decide how they want to enjoy the poem. That is what makes poetry so different from other written works the reader may interpret it however it bests fits for them, and that view may change on the number of times you read it.

Comments

  1. NegiAPlitNovember 15, 2018 at 11:49 AM

    This poem in particular drew me into the story more than any other war poem that we've read in class so far. The poet did an good job of creating room for duality in the voice of the speaker. While the perspective is open to interpretation, I believe that the speaker was the bystander looking back at the event from the future. There were hints of worry and agitation for the "woman in the yellow jacket" and the girl with the "green ribbon" in the speaker's voice during the poem.

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