Forced March: Selected Poems [Paperback]

Miklos Radnoti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2004

Forced March is a new edition of Miklos Radnoti's (1909-1944) selected poems. By the time the Second World War broke out, he was already an established poet. When the Nazis took over his hometown of Budapest, he was sent to a labor camp at Bor in occupied Serbia. Then, in 1944, as the Germans retreated from the eastern front, Radnoti and his fellow laborers were force-marched back to Hungary. On November 9, too weak to carry on, he and many comrades were executed by firing squad. When the bodies were exhumed the following year, Radnoti was identified by a notebook of poems in his greatcoat pocket. These poems, published in 1946 as Foaming Sky, secured his position as one of the giants of modern Hungarian poetry. ""Radnoti scores with his everyday words expressing his stoic response to tragic circumstances.""-World Literature Today

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Hungarian (translation) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Miklos Radnoti, one of the giants of modern Hungarian poetry, was born in Budapest in 1909. He was of Jewish extraction. Orphaned early in life, he knew little emotional security till his 1935 marriage to Fanni Gyarmati, the muse of his poems. His first book of poetry, A Pagan Welcome, was published in 1930, when he was 21. It consists of celebrations of life and love, naive, formless and avant-garde in manner. Later volumes show the influence, first, of libertarian Socialism and, then, of Roman Catholicism. Radnoti's real talent does not emerge, however, till his fifth book, Keep Walking, You, the Death-Condemned (1936), where it is focused by his rising anxiety at the rise of fascism. This book and Steep Path (1938) reveal his growing preoccupation with fate and the deaths of poets in their youth. The latter also includes the first two of his eclogues in classical metres. From 1940 on, with Hungary in the shadow of the Third Reich, Radnoti, like many others of Jewish race, was obliged to serve in forced labour battalions. The last of these - at Bor in Serbia - was evacuated in 1944 as the Germans retreated from the eastern front. Radnoti and his fellow labourers were force-marched back into Hungary, where on 9 November, too weak to carry on, he and many comrades were executed by firing-squad. The following year the bodies were exhumed. Radnoti's was identified by a notebook of poems in his greatcoat pocket. They were published in 1946 under the title Foaming Sky.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Enitharmon Pr; Revised edition (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190056453X
• ISBN-13: 978-1900564533
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,698,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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