Seferis, George (redirected from Giorgios Stylianou Seferiades)

Seferis, George (sĕfĕr`ēs) (Giorgos Sefiriades), 1900–1971, Greek poet. Educated at the Univ. of Paris, he returned to Greece, where he had a distinguished career as a diplomat, including service as ambassador to the United Nations (1956–57) and Great Britain (1957–62). His poetry is surrealistic and highly symbolic—at times cryptic—invoking classical Greek themes. Many of his poems explore the 20th-century Greek consciousness and way of life. His volumes of poetry include Strophé (1931) and Mithistoríma (1935, tr. 1960). He also produced a volume of essays on Greek poets and poetry, Dokimés (1944; tr. On the Greek Style, 1960). Seferis won the 1963 Nobel Prize in literature, the first Greek to do so.

Bibliography

See his Collected Poems, 1924–55 (1967); Three Secret Poems (tr. 1969); A Poet's Journal (tr. 1974).

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Seferis, George

 orig. Giorgios Stylianou Seferiades or Yeoryios Stilianou Sepheriades

(born March 13, 1900, Smyrna, Anatolia, Ottoman Empire—died Sept. 20, 1971, Athens, Greece) Greek poet, essayist, and diplomat. He studied law in Paris and held various diplomatic posts from 1926 to 1962. His poetry appeared in a number of collections beginning with I strofí (1931; “The Turning Point”). He is considered the leading Greek poet of “the generation of the '30s,” which introduced Symbolism to modern Greek literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963.