SOURCE: An introduction to Six Poets of Modern Greece, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, Alfred A. Knopf, 1961, pp. 3-27.

In the following essay, Keeley and Sherrard discuss six contemporary Greek poets, including Sikelanianos.

When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, two poets, Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos, had already begun to give expression to the re-awakening consciousness of the Greek people. Throughout the nineteenth century other poets followed these pioneers, all working in a tradition whose roots, set in the age-old demotic Greek heritage, were native and local in the best sense. The prolific master Kostis Palamas, writing his major work round the end of the century, was perhaps the most influential of these. In a way, his work marks a turning point. The strongly romantic and optimistic temper of the nineteenth century, which Palamas fully expresses, now gives place to new attitudes. On...