The Hidden Childness of a Nobel Prize-Winning Poet: George Seferis’s Limericks for Young Readers
The Hidden Childness of a Nobel Prize-Winning Poet: George Seferis’s Limericks for Young Readers

Summary/Abstract: In addition to his outstanding poems for adults, George Seferis, the Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet, also wrote verses for children. The limericks he composed as gifts for children of his family were published in a volume entitled Poiḗmata me Zōgraphiés se Mikrá Paidiá [Poems with Drawings for Young Children] (1975), discussed in this paper. With these limericks, Seferis turned to the Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition of nonsense to oppose the ‘seriousness’ of adult life, while also coping with painful family memories and the dark atmosphere of World War II. He employed humour and playfulness as an antidote to harsh realities. Accompanied by surreal drawings, the playful verses became the playground where Seferis met his child readers as well as his childness.

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