Maria Polidoúri

Greek poet
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Also known as: Maria Polydoúre
Quick Facts
Polidoúri also spelled:
Polydoúre
Born:
1905, Kalámai, Greece
Died:
1930, Athens (aged 25)
Also Known As:
Maria Polydoúre

Maria Polidoúri (born 1905, Kalámai, Greece—died 1930, Athens) was a Greek poet known for her impassioned, eloquent farewell to life.

Polidoúri was orphaned as a small child, and in 1921 she went to Athens to study law. There she began a friendship with another poet, Kóstas Kariotákis. In 1926 she went to Paris, returning two years later, fatally ill. In 1930 she entered a sanatorium near Athens, where she died.

Her two books of poems reflect her awareness of impending death. The tone alternates between bitter questioning and a cold resignation in which she seems to contemplate her own pain from outside herself.

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry
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