The essential Cavafy

by Kōnstantinos Petrou Kabaphēs

Though not published until after his death in 1933, the poetry of C.P. Cavafy has come to be recognized as having a unique and fundamental influence upon modern literature. Much of Cavafy's verse explores the history and culture of his Alexandria, often in the context of his own uneasy relationship with its contemporary incarnation. In a sensual, meditative, sometimes playfully didactic style all his own, Cavafy reflects upon the "myth" of Alexandria and the ironies of its entanglement with his own existence and memories. In this most recent volume in the Essential Poets Series, editor Edmund Keeley has gathered together the poems for which Cavafy has come to be regarded as one of the most important and influential poets of the twentieth century. In addition, Keeley has provided readers with an insightful introduction and biography of the poet.