George Seferis

(pen name of Giorgos Seferiades). Born Feb. 19, 1900, in İzmir, Turkey; died Sept. 20, 1971, in Athens. Greek poet.

Seferis moved to Athens in 1914. From 1918 to 1925 he studied law in Paris, and between 1926 and 1962 he served in the diplomatic corps. In 1931 he published his first collection of verse, The Turning Point, which was followed by the collections The Cistern (1932), Mythistorema (1935), Exercise Book (1940), Log Book I (1940), Log Book II (1944), The Thrush (1947), and Log Book III (1955). The metaphor of the deck of a ship, often used in his verse, represents a continually moving stage where the poet acts and meditates. His works portray modern themes through the use of Greek mythology. The verses of the 1930’s are permeated with elegiac recollections of childhood and dramatic reflections on the defeat of Greece in the Turkish War of Independence of 1919–22. During World War II, Seferis extolled the resistance fighters in their struggle for freedom. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1963.