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Selected Poems - Penguin Modern Classics

Paperback (28 Nov 2024)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Selected and introduced by J. M. Coetzee and Alissa Valles, an essential gathering of poetry from one of the twentieth century's pre-eminent literary voices

be courageous when reason fails you be courageous
in the final reckoning it is the only thing that counts


Born in Poland, Zbigniew Herbert was one of the great poets of the twentieth century, moved throughout his work by a powerful sense of humanity in the darkest of times. This new selection brings together poems from across the whole of his writing life, from his first volume Chord of Light in 1956, to works published posthumously in 2024. Direct, lucid, sometimes impish in his ironic humour, and deeply informed not only by the history of his own time, but by the Classical world, here is a poet of huge imaginative range and profundity, who desires always to 'touch the essence': to get to the heart of life.

"He offers what we all need in an age of darkening anxiety and mistrust: a voice of lucid, truly humane observation and integrity. Ethical, often ironical, full of self-doubt; quick, original and vivid." Ruth Padel

About the Publisher

Penguin Classics

In January 1946, the Penguin Classics list was launched with E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey. The series now consists of over 800 titles including the best in English, American, European, classical and non-western literature and an extensive range of philosophy, religion, art, history and politics titles.

Book information

ISBN: 9780241654613
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Pub date:
DEWEY: 891.8517
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 256
Weight: 216g
Height: 197mm
Width: 130mm
Spine width: 19mm