C.P. Cavafy Historical Poems

About the Book

Cavafy's Historical Poems is the first volume of a four-book set constituting a study of the life and opus of this fascinating poet.

The second volume is an anecdotal life detailing Cavafy’s home and its atmosphere: the man, the poet, and his lifestyle; the odes of his compatriot partisans; the praises of his foreign admirers; the barbs and insults of his critics and revilers; the poet as a critical ironist; and the last part of his life. More than one hundred commentators are quoted, and just as many of his poems are used where it seemed appropriate.

A third volume consists of erratic commentaries containing the author’s evaluation and criticism of the main contributions to Cavafy’s poetry. That is these of George Seferis, Sir Maurice Bowra, Robert Liddel, Edmund Keeley, Grigorios Xenopoulos, Timos Malanos, Stratis Tsirkas, John Sareyiannis, and others. These follow an opening chapter on Hellenization and a second chapter on the controversial subject of the dates of composition of Cavafy’s poems.

The fourth volume, The Canon, is a verse translation of the 150 poems Cavafy accepted as his mature opus, including the original Greek verses, accompanied by detailed examination of the poet’s craft and style. That is to say the meter, length of verse, wedging, rhyme, enjambment, titles, organization, punctuation, the absences, lyricism, periphrasis, description, narrative, suggestive image, abstractions, transmission, maturity, content, language, irony, intellectuality, etc.

About the Author

John Phillipson has been an incorrigible Cavafy reader for over half a century. The punishment for this misdeed is the book in hand and a few more to come (see the back cover).