Collection of 22 lyrics concentrate on ethical and moral issues which were brought by "A large number". Szymborska was writting in particulary difficult for Poles time, just before and during Gen. Jaruzelski's dictatorship. "The people on the Bridge" captures the gloomy atmosphere of early '80 in Poland, hopelessness and desperation of ordinary people. Szymborska doesn't speak directly about the politics but it feels that her poems are adressed to a different reader. This reader is tired and rather serious. She knows that people are now amussed by different things, she doesn't want to feed them with flowery. She knows they change so she speeks to them in different way:
"I wrote by light as an ordinary bulb
to the typewriter's tap tap tap-
Without worrying in advance
if it was poetry
and if so what kind-
The kind in which prose is inappropriate
or the kind which is apropos in prose-"
("Stage Fright" )
Deepness and wisdom, dignity and calmness of "The people on the bridge" was very much desired in those dificult days. It was like a catharsis which brings consolation.