Love at First Sight

Wislawa Szymborska was a Polish poet, editor, and columnist. She received international acclaim when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Szymborska did not subscribe to any poetic movement and is sometimes credited with pioneering a literary genre all her own—one which connected the political climate of the world to everyday life. During her long and productive career, Szymborska published over 16 collections of work. She was globally known for her clarity, wit, and precision in writing about everyday subjects.

“Love at First Sight” was first published in Szymborska’s collection The End and the Beginning (1993). The poem focuses on the roles of fate and serendipity in romantic relationships and, more broadly, life in general. While the poem’s lovers believe in the catchy concept of “love at first sight,” they seem unaware of the many ordinary situations in which they may have previously met. The poem explores how their conviction in a single, magical moment overshadows the many circumstances leading to their love. On a surface level, Szymborska asks her readers to reassess concepts like “love at first sight”; on a deeper level, she breathes new meaning into peoples’ daily habits and routines.

Poet Biography

Wislawa Szymborska was born on July 2, 1923, in Bnin (now Kornik), Poland. After the death of her father in 1924, her family moved first to Torun, then to Krakow, where Szymborska spent most of her life.

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 and threats of deportation to Germany put restraints on Szymborska’s access to education and employment opportunities. She studied Polish literature and sociology from 1945-1948 at Jagellonian University, but ended her schooling before graduation due to financial constraints. In 1953, she became an editor and columnist for the literary review magazine Życie Literackie (Literary Life), where she would work for almost 30 years. She married fellow poet Adam Wlodek in 1948; after their divorce in 1954, the two remained lifelong friends.

Szymborska was politically active throughout her life. She was an early supporter of communism in Poland and a proud member of the Polish United Workers’ Party, but the party’s shift to a more national form of socialism saw her sever ties with the movement in the 1950s and 60s.

As a writer, Szymborska was known for her wit, accessibility, and focus on the inner workings of daily life. She published over 16 volumes of poetry and her work has been translated into over twelve languages. Szymborska achieved literary acclaim worldwide when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996, with the Nobel Prize Committee dubbing her the “Mozart of poetry” (Flood, Alison. “Wislawa SZYMBORSKA, 'Mozart of Poetry', Dies Aged 88.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Feb. 2012, www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/02/wislawa-szymborska-dies-88). She also received the Goethe Prize (1991), the Herder Prize (1995), the Polish PEN Club Prize (1996), and an Honorary Doctorate from Poznan University (1995).

Szymborska passed away in her home in Krakow at the age of 88 on February 1, 2012.

Poem Text

Szymborska, Wislawa. “Love at First Sight.” 2015. Poets.org.

Summary

“Love at First Sight” opens with two lovers’ thoughts on the origins of their relationship. They believe “sudden passion joined them” in an instant (Line 2). While the speaker thinks this conviction is “beautiful” (Line 3), “uncertainty is more beautiful still” (Line 4).

Stanza 2 clarifies the situation: The lovers believe they have “never met before” (Line 5) and are certain, too, that they had no past feelings for one another. The speaker suggests otherwise. The lovers could have encountered each other in countless ordinary places in the past, such as “the streets, staircases, hallways” (Line 7). They could have walked by one another “a million times” (Line 8).

In Stanza 3, the speaker longs to open the lovers’ eyes to the possibilities. They want specifics: Do the lovers recall any fleeting moments in which they could have met, perhaps “in some revolving door” (Line 12) or with a mumbled “sorry” (Line 13) in a crowded place? They had spoken, perhaps, when one had dialed a wrong number (Line 14). At the end of the stanza, the speaker knows the answer: “No, they don’t remember” (Line 16).

In Stanza 4, the speaker declares that the lovers would be “amazed” (Line 17) to find “Chance” (Line 18) had been “toying with them” (Line 18) for years. Because Chance had not been ready to evolve into “Destiny” (Line 21), it had laughingly driven them apart time and again before “leap[ing] aside” (Line 25).

Despite Chance’s interference, the speaker describes “signs and signals” (Line 26) which might have previously tipped off the lovers off, though they “couldn’t read them yet” (Line 27). Long ago—or within the past week, even—a leaf could have touched one of the lover’s shoulders before passing to the other (Lines 28-31). One might have picked up an item the other dropped (Line 32). They even could have met as children, when a ball was lost in “childhood’s thicket” (Lines 33-34).

The lovers’ hands might have touched the same “doorknobs and doorbells” (Line 35); their suitcases could have been “side by side” (Line 38) in the airport. Perhaps the lovers even shared the “same dream” (Line 39), though both remembered little of it in the morning.

In the final stanza, the speaker broadens the scope of the poem. Every beginning is sequential to the past, they argue, and life is a “book of events” (Line 43). The poem concludes on a note of careful optimism. Each person’s book of life “is always open halfway through” (Lines 43-44).