Description
Selected and introduced by J. M. Coetzee and Alissa Valles, an essential gathering of poetry from one of the twentieth century's pre-eminent literary voices
be courageous when reason fails you be courageous
in the final reckoning it is the only thing that counts
Born in Poland, Zbigniew Herbert was one of the great poets of the twentieth century, moved throughout his work by a powerful sense of humanity in the darkest of times. This new selection brings together poems from across the whole of his writing life, from his first volume Chord of Light in 1956, to works published posthumously in 2024. Direct, lucid, sometimes impish in his ironic humour, and deeply informed not only by the history of his own time, but by the Classical world, here is a poet of huge imaginative range and profundity, who desires always to 'touch the essence': to get to the heart of life.
About the Author
Zbigniew Herbert was born in Lwow, Poland, in 1924, and studied law, economics and philosophy at the universities of Krakow, Torun, and Warsaw. His books include Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems, Mr Cogito, Still Life with a Bridle and The King of the Ants. He died in 1998.
Reviews
Herbert's poems, even in English, seem to me finer than anything currently being written by any English or American poet * The New York Review of Books *
Herbert is a poet with all the strength of Antaeus ... He shoulders the whole sky and the scope of human dignity with responsibility -- Seamus Heaney
Book Information
ISBN 9780241654613
Author Zbigniew Herbert
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 212g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 130mm * 17mm
