Rhyme
Rhyme adds musicality and cohesion to the poem. Szymborska uses end rhyme consistently.
Examples:
- twice / practise
- dumber / summer
- yesterday / way
- tongue / flung
- sorrow / tomorrow
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds, often used to create rhythm or emphasis.
Examples:
- fleeting day
- sorry fact
- smiles and kisses
- rose were flung
- planet’s biggest dunce
Repetition
Repetition reinforces themes and emotional resonance.
Examples:
- A rose? A rose? — emphasizes confusion and emotional shift
- No day… no two nights… — stresses uniqueness
- precisely the same — highlights impossibility of repetition
- Today is always gone tomorrow — cyclical nature of time
- we prefer… we concur — unity despite difference
Metaphor
Metaphors convey abstract ideas through vivid imagery.
Examples:
- we arrive here improvised — life as unscripted performance
- a rose were flung into the room — sudden beauty or emotion
- this course is only offered once — life as a one-time class
- two drops of water — similarity despite individuality
- flower or a rock — emotional ambiguity
Syntax (Sentence Structure)
Szymborska uses varied sentence structures to guide tone and pacing.
Examples:
- Short declaratives: Nothing can ever happen twice.
- Rhetorical questions: A rose? A rose? What could that be?
- Conditional clauses: Even if there is no one dumber…
- Inversions: With smiles and kisses, we prefer…
- Juxtapositions: Although we’re different… just as two drops of water are.
Textual Analysis
Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.
Even if there is no one dumber,
if you’re the planet’s biggest dunce,
you can’t repeat the class in summer:
this course is only offered once.
No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses.
One day, perhaps some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.
The next day, though you’re here with me,
I can’t help looking at the clock:
A rose? A rose? What could that be?
Is it a flower or a rock?
Why do we treat the fleeting day
with so much needless fear and sorrow?
It’s in its nature not to stay:
Today is always gone tomorrow.
With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we’re different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are.
