Kazimierz Wierzyński was a Polish writer whose long career resists easy classification. Starting out as a bright poetic star in newly-resurrected Poland, Wierzyński grappled with the demands of his national poetic tradition, emerging from the tragedy of war as the great Polish poet of émigré despair in the twentieth century. Although overshadowed by more versatile and expansive poets such as his fellow émigré Czesław Miłosz, Wierzyński achieved the sophisticated balance of the modern lyric poem, transforming the alienation of exile into a probing search for meaning through art in an indifferent world.
Wierzyński was born on August 27, 1894, in Drohobycz, a city in western Ukraine. His father, a railroad stationmaster, descended from German settlers who colonized Galicia under the
3338 words
Citation: Lavery, Michael. "Kazimierz Wierzyński". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13812, accessed 23 November 2024.]