Heaney Writes about Milosz

As we've noted before, 2011 is the centenary of Czeslaw Milosz's birth and in the Guardian Seamus Heaney celebrates the work of the great Polish poet. He begins with a story about the writer:

Milosz, on a return visit to his birthplace in Lithuania some 50 years after he had left, walked up to an oak tree and embraced it. An image of the return of the native, of course, but also an image of someone drawing strength – the psychic, moral and physical strength of a great poet – from his home ground.

Heaney concludes:

What distinguishes Miłosz as a poet is the abundance and spontaneity of the work, his at-homeness in so many different genres and landscapes, his desire for belief and his equally acute scepticism. Chiefly, however, what irradiates the poetry and compels the reader is a quality of wisdom.

Very true.