The poem A Moment in Troy by Wislawa Szymborska features a theme familiar to most people: a daydream. The very first line of the poem introduces the subject, “little girls.” They are skinny and covered in freckles, traits they can do nothing about. They are not noticeable to the rest of the world and they look like their parents, which they vehemently dislike. Szymborska devotes the first part of her poem to describing her subject, then she switches to describing their daydreams. She begins the daydream portion with a set of adverbial prepositional phrases, “in the middle of dinner,/ in the middle of a book.” These help the transition from real life to the daydream by describing how daydreams can arise in any situation. The line, “may suddenly be taken off to Troy,” is the beginning of the daydream. The little girls become Helen of Troy, a beautiful princess in Greek mythology. The little girls imagine themselves as Helen because she is everything they are not; beautiful, confident, respected. Szymborska uses the next stanza to describe the extravagant daydream, full of royal staircases, silk garments, and unwavering admiration. The final stanza features a list of people that exist in real life, movie stars, their friend’s older brothers, and an art teacher. These are the people that the little girls want to impress in real life, yet once they become Helen, these people are no longer worthy, thus they must be slain.

There is an obvious shift in the language from the beginning of the poem to the end. She uses adverbial phrases such as “not turning any heads” and “sincerely horrified” to show that the little girls are not even close to being beautiful princesses. Once the daydream begins, adverbials such as “extend proudly” and “in the rustling of silk and admiration” suggest power and opulence.

 Szymborska begins the poem by explicitly stating her subject, “little girls.” From that point on she uses the pronouns “they” and “their” in order to make the point that she is not talking about one specific little girl, rather little girls as a whole. This makes the point that daydreams are a common experience for everyone.