From First Glance

Of all the poems in The Rose That Grew from Concrete, Tupac gave a full date to only a single one. Right below the dedication “4 Michelle From Zap’s” stands “Feb 1, 1990”. For dating Tupac’s poems, From First Glance is therefore a rare stroke of luck. While the remaining texts in the collection can only be broadly assigned to the years 1989 to 1991, as Afeni Shakur writes in the preface, this date is firmly established. Who Michelle was and what is meant by “Zap’s” is not documented.

No Doubts: His Heart Never Lies

The poem is short and distinctly self-assured. From the first glance, the speaker insists, he knew exactly what was to come: both had perfect hearts destined for each other. Circumstances did not matter, because his heart never lies. And if she refused to admit that, in the end she would be the one caught by surprise.

The tone is half smitten, half flirtatious: here speaks a young man who has just met a woman and wants to get ahead of her with a grand gesture.

Right Before, He Claims the Opposite

The neighboring placement in the volume is striking: directly before From First Glance stands I Know My Heart Has Lied Before. That title alone concedes that his own heart has been mistaken. Here, by contrast, the speaker claims his heart never lies. Whether the editors deliberately chose this contrast is not known; yet it shows how differently Tupac could describe the same emotions within a short space of time.

The poem shares the motif of the first glance with 1st Impressions, which in the book is dedicated “4 Irene”. The introduction provides an overview of the entire book and all the poems.