“I am Dreaming That I am Waking up” — the Oneiric Possible Worlds in the Poetry of Wisława Szymborska

This paper presents a reflection of the category of possible worlds in the poetry of Wisława Szymborska.
Its objective is to prove that the potential realities, including the oneiric worlds, are an important component
of Nobelist’s poetic worldview. The author also tries to examine the connections between Wisława
Szymborska’s work and the assumptions of the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, statements of
David Lewis or views of Saul Kripke. The paper concerns a typology of numerous potential realities in the
work of Cracovian poet and it deals with the role of a dream in constructing the potential realities. Potential
realities play an important role in speaking about the actual world and turn out to be a way to determine,
define and describe the condition of human and reality. The author analyses these poems of W. Szymborska
in which the poet seems to put ontological questions about our current reality and she considers the status
of the dreamed worlds. The author of these considerations notes that the fascination with the other (thinkable
and imaginable) modes of existence, clearly visible in the poetry of Szymborska, allows some poetic
metaphysical model — some poetic philosophy — to emerge from her works.