Author: Gatsos, Nikos
Paperback
Published: May 1999
Anvil Press Poetry
ISBN: 0856463027

Nikos Gatsos's profoundly mysterious and magnetic poem Amorgos, named after a Greek island he never visited and written during the Nazi occupation, is the single work on which his reputation rests. It is a wonderful incantation, a unique blend of surrealism, symbolism and folk song: lyrical, erotic, a paean of loss and hope, sometimes celebratory, sometimes bitter. It was much admired by Elytis and Seferis, and was hugely influential on the postwar generation of Greek poets. After its publication in 1943 Gatsos abandoned poetry and wrote popular songs, for which he was later renowned.