Polish poet Milosz dies

Published August 15, 2004

WARSAW, Aug 14: Czeslaw Milosz, Poland's Nobel Prize-winning emigre poet and symbol of opposition to totalitarianism, died on Saturday at his home in the southern Polish city of Krakow at the age of 93.

Described by Joseph Brodsky, another literary Nobel Prize laureate, as "one of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest", Czeslaw Milosz gave Polish poetry international visibility.

His primary genius lay in complex poetry, intellectual and moralistic, reflecting the turbulence and chaos of the 20th century, much of which he spent in exile.

Milosz received his Nobel Literary Prize in 1980, amid the heady atmosphere of the Polish Solidarity movement's bold challenge to Soviet-style communist rule.

"He was a member of the betrayed generation unable to defend freedom and dignity," Solidarity founder and former Polish President Lech Walesa said of Milosz. -Reuters

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