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Jestem baba [I Am a Hag], her famous book from 1972, helped change the course of Polish literature and made the author one of its most significant poets. No one had written about female experience so openly and uncompromisingly before. The collection immediately caught the attention of readers and critics surprised by this literary volte-face. Świrszczyńska, previously known mainly as a children’s author (and less so as a poet and playwright), had not been thought of as belonging among the top-tier authors. Her volume Collected Poems allows us to follow the long path she travelled from her debut Wiersze i proza [Poems and Prose] to the posthumous collection Cierpienie i szczęście [Suffering and Happiness]. The book features all the poems from the volumes published between 1938 and 1985 (and work found among her papers after her death), as well as librettos and song lyrics. The evolution of the poet’s style consisted of embracing conciseness and almost completely rejecting figurative speech, while creating a psychologically credible “corporeal” lyrical “I” – a woman speaking about her marital, maternal and sexual experiences, as well as about male violence and oppression in the world of stereotypically perceived gender roles. These themes and subjects, first introduced in the collection Wiatr [Wind], then placed front and centre in Jestem baba [I Am a Hag], and explored further in the volume Szczęśliwa jak psi

ogon [Happy as a Dog’s Tail], allowed Świrszczyńska’s poems to be read in the context of feminism. Her poetic chronicle of the Warsaw Uprising, Budowałam barykadę [Building the Barricade], also caused a stir, presenting the traumatic experiences of that time through the eyes of a woman (Świrszczyńska served as a nurse). The poet’s last volume, Cierpienie i szczęście [Suffering and Happiness], addressed issues such as old age, suffering and happiness. And the very much alive “haggish” corporeality.