They came to see a poet - Tadeusz Rzewicz

Tadeusz Rzewicz is Poland's most popular and influential poet. Born in 1921, he belongs to the generation of writers whose work was indelibly marked by Poland's traumatic and tragic war-time experience. 'What I produced is poetry for the horror-stricken. For those abandoned to butchery. For survivors.' Rejecting traditional aesthetic values - which struck him as offensive in the face of what he had witnessed - Rzewicz has created a stark, direct poetry rooted in common speech, fashioned 'out of a remnant of words, salvaged words, out of uninteresting words, words from the great rubbish dump, the great cemetery.'

Yet Rzewicz's poetry is not confined to recording the horrors of war. They Came to See a Poet includes poems addressing childhood, friendship, love, eroticism, art, the poet's rle and obligations, religion, ageing, death and the anxieties of modern civilization. In 2003 Tadeusz Rzewicz was awarded the Montale Prize, the latest of many awards and honours.

This third edition includes recent poems and an additional preface by Adam Czerniawski.