Starting from a survey of Wisława Szymborska Italian success, the contribution analyses the reception of her work by contemporary Italian poets. They employ two main elements from her poetry: “simple style” and irony, particularly present in Vivian Lamarque’s poetry. While the former allows a colloquial tone, which aims to establish a communicative relationship with the reader, the latter is mainly used in a lyrical function: it aims at revealing contents that are unusual for the enunciative self. The investigation ends by taking into consideration some thoughts on the Polish poet by Italian authors. They demonstrate how it is possible to reconsider the image of Szymborska beyond any stereotype and, above all, how she helps to question the centrality of the lyric self, as in the case of Antonella Anedda.