Love at First Sight

In “Love at First Sight,” the speaker muses on the tensions between serendipity and fate in a couple’s romantic life. They question the concept of “love at first sight” and ask the reader to consider the fateful possibilities of everyday encounters. Szymborska uses poetic devices like irony, point of view, and personification to set a gently humorous setting for the poem.

The first stanza introduces the poem’s primary theme: the two lovers’ understanding of the origins of their relationship. The speaker describes their firm conviction that “a sudden passion joined them” (Line 1). While the lovers are certain that their romance began the first moment they saw each other, the speaker believes this is just a “beautiful” (Line 3) fantasy. Certainty in any aspect of life, they suggest, is misplaced. The external forces of Chance and Destiny—and most people’s inability to note the significance of every moment—make “uncertainty” (Line 4) more beautiful than blind confidence.

In Stanza 2, the speaker ironically wonders what “the streets, staircases, hallways” (Line 7) would have to say to the lovers, shifting narrative priority to the everyday places where the lovers could have “passed by each other a million times” (Line 8).