Leopold Staff

Leopold Staff (November 14, 1878 in Lwów [now Lviv, Ukraine] – May 31, 1957 in Skarżysko-Kamienna) was a Polish poet and one of the greatest artists of European modernism honored two times by honorary degrees (honoris causa). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Representative of classicism and symbolism in the poetry of Young Poland, an author of many philosophical poems strong influenced by the idea of the Übermensch, the id... more

Leopold Staff (November 14, 1878 in Lwów [now Lviv, Ukraine] – May 31, 1957 in Skarżysko-Kamienna) was a Polish poet and one of the greatest artists of European modernism honored two times by honorary degrees (honoris causa). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Representative of classicism and symbolism in the poetry of Young Poland, an author of many philosophical poems strong influenced by the idea of the Übermensch, the ideas of the Franciscan order, and paradoxes of Christianity. He was born in Lviv (Lemberg), Austria-Hungary and died in Skarżysko-Kamienna. Staff was highly influential in the literary life of Julian Tuwim, one of Poland's most renowned poets. Staff's writing can be divided into three periods: Young Poland, Interwar period, and postwar Poland. In the early XX century, Staff became probably the most famuous and influential Polish poet. He called his popularity as a retiring, soft glory. In the 1950s, he faced to blank verse close up to avant... less