Czeslaw milosz best poems
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Milosz wrote that creativity came from an “inner command” to express the truth.Illustration by Andrea Ventura
In July, 1950, Czeslaw Milosz, the cultural attaché at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C., received a letter from Jerzy Putrament, the general secretary of the Polish Writers’ Union. The two men had known each other for many years—they had been contributors to the same student magazine in college, in the early nineteen-thirties—but their paths had diverged widely. Now the arch-commissar of Polish literature told the poet, “I heard that you are to be moved to Paris. . . . I am happy that you will be coming here, because I have been worried about you a little: whether the splendor of material goods in America has overshadowed poverty in other aspects of life.”
The language was polite, even confiding, but the message could not have been clearer. Milosz, who had been working as a diplomat in the United States for four years, was no longer considered trustworthy by his superiors. He was being transferred to Paris so that he would be within reach of Warsaw. Sure enough
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CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ
Poet, essayist, translator, literary historian, diplomat.
Miłosz spent his younger years in Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), studying first at the King Zygmunt August Secondary School, where he passed his matriculation examinations in 1929, then at the Stefan Batory University, where he initially pursued Polish studies and later switched to law.
Literary Debut
Miłosz made his debut with the publication of two poems, “Kompozycja” (Composition) and “Podróż” (Journey), in the university magazine Alma Mater Vilnensis in 1930. During his time at university, Miłosz co-founded the literary society Żagary (Tinders) and co-edited its magazine. He completed his law studies in 1934, and the same year was awarded the Filomaci Literary Prize by the Wilno branch of the Polish Writers’ Trade Union. He spent 1934–5 studying in Paris on a scholarship, and on his return started working for Polish Radio, first in Wilno and then in Warsaw.
War
In September 1939 Miłosz managed to cross into Romania, then m
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Czesław Miłosz
Czesław Miłosz was born to Weronika and Aleksander Milosz on June 30, 1911 in Szetejnie, Lithuania (then under the domination of the Russian tsarist government). After the outbreak of World War I, Aleksander Milosz was drafted into the Tsar’s army, and as a combat engineer he built bridges and fortifications in front-line areas. His wife and son accompanied him in his constant travels throughout Russia. The family returned to Lithuania until 1918, settling in Wilno (then a part of Poland; also called Vilnius or Vilna).
Miłosz graduated from high school in 1929, and in 1930 his first poems were published in Alma Mater Vilnenis, a university magazine. In 1931, he cofounded the Polish avant-garde literary group “Zagary”; his first collection of verse appeared in 1933. In 1934, he earned a master of law degree and traveled to Paris on a fellowship from the National Culture Fund. In 1936, he began working as a literary programmer for Radio Wilno. He was dismissed for his leftist views the following year and, after a trip to Italy, took a job with Polish Radio
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