New and Collected Poems: 1931--2001 celebrates seven decades of
Czeslaw Milosz's exceptional career. Widely regarded as one of the
greatest poets of our time, Milosz is a master of probing inquiry and
graceful expression. His poetry is infused with a tireless spirit and
penetrating insight into fundamental human dilemmas and the staggering
yet simple truth that "to exist on the earth is beyond any power to
name."
Czeslaw Milosz worked with the Polish Resistance movement in Warsaw
during World War II and defected to France in 1951. His work brings to
bear the political awareness of an exile--most notably in A Treatise on
Poetry, a forty-page exploration of the world wars that rocked the
first half of the twentieth century. His later poems also reflect the
sharp political focus through which this Nobel Laureate never fails to
bear witness to the events that stir the world.
Digging among the rubble of the past, Milosz forges a vision that
encompasses pain as well as joy. His work, wrote Edward Hirsch in the
New York Times Book Review, is "one of the monumental splendors of
poetry in our age." With more than fifty poems from the end of Milosz's
career, this is an essential collection from one of the most important
voices in contemporary poetry.
