The most comprehensive book in English on the Nobel Laureate Czes?aw Mi?osz combines literary and historical approaches to his poems, essays, literary criticism and translations and to his poetic self-image. It offers an account of the Polish cultural milieu in the 20th century and interprets the fate of poetry under two totalitarian regimes.

Zdzis?aw ?api?ski is a professor in the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of books and articles on Norwid and Polish Modernist poets as well as on socialist realism, he recently prepared a volume devoted to poetry by Czes?aw Mi?osz.

Contents: Teresa Walas: Mi?osz as a Figure of Problematic Identity – Micha? Pawe? Markowski: The Dilemmas of Self-Presentation – Aleksander Fiut: ?agary and Skamander - Czes?aw Mi?osz’s Correspondence with Jaros?aw Iwaszkiewicz – Maria Janion: Kro?ski - Mi?osz: An Episode from the History of Ideas and Poetry – Stefan Chwin: The Time of the Bible and the Time of Mr. Cogitp. or the Essence of the Dispute between Herbert and Mi?osz – Leszek Ko?akowski: Ninety Years in Search of a Homeland – Stanis?aw Balbus: «The First Movement Is a Singing»: A Preliminary Study of Mi?osz’s Verse – Marian Stala: «Ecstasy at Sunrise»: Among Mi?osz’s Major Themes – Stanis?aw Balbus: «Conversation at Easter 1620» - An Intertextual Interpretation – Ryszard Nycz: «Thrown in the Geographically Shaky Position»: Czes?aw Mi?osz’s Experience of Space and Place – El?bieta Rybicka: Homo Geopgraphicus: The Topographies and Auto-Bio-Geographies of Czes?aw Mi?osz (A Reconnaissance) – El?bieta Ki?lak: Destined Affinities and Eclectic Love – Jacek ?ukasiewicz: Poet on Poets – Marek Zaleski: Songs of Innocence and Experience – ?ukasz Tischner: Towards Fullness – Stanis?aw Bara?czak: Dawns – Micha? G?owi?ski: «Outskirts» – Aleksandra Okopoie?- S?awi?ska: «Outskirts» as another «Song on the End of the World»: A Contribution to the Definition of Czes?aw Mi?osz’s Poetic Art – Jerzy Kwiatkowski: Mi?osz at the Brink of the Occupation: «The River» – Jan B?o?ski: The Intellect’s Return: (1957) – Adam Dziadek: Poetry as Interpretation of Art: Czes?aw Mi?osz’s Poems about Pictures – Danuta Opacka-Walasek: A Pastiche Against Dying: «In Honour of Reverend Baka» by Czes?aw Mi?osz – Piotr ?liwi?ski: A Sinking Life – Ewa Bie?kowska: Mi?osz and the Book of Psalms.