Biography Essay

Desanka Maksimovic appeared on the Serbian literary scene in 1920 and graced it with her presence for more than seventy years. From her first published verses, with which she established herself as an important lyric poet, her poetry, though rooted in Serbian tradition, has remained new and fresh, always changing yet always unmistakably her own. A minute and seemingly frail woman, she persistently and successfully pursued her own literary path, never formally belonging to any group, school, or trend. Any influences were filtered through the prism of her own talent and fully and harmoniously integrated into an entirely original poetic opus. From her early confessional love poetry of the 1920s and 1930s, which is permeated with sun rays and scents of her native area's forests and meadows, morning mists, and mysterious moonlit landscapes, to her universally acclaimed collections Trazim pomilovanje (1964; translated as "I Seek Clemency," 1988) and Nemam...