Literary histories in verse: fathers and sons of modern Greek poetry

Abstract

This paper examines a distinctive example of literary criticism in verse: Palamas' poem 'Oι φατ&egr;ρ&egr;' from the collection Bωμo&iacgr;(1915). The poem is shown to be, contrary to its recent critical reception, a concise literary history in verse and a highly authoritative poetic and ideological canon which distils pithily the literary views of the demoticist Palamas of the second decade of the twentieth century. The paper also examines the dialogue of the poem with Alexandros Soutsos' similar poetic effort in 'Eφιστoλη φρo τoν βασιλ&egr;α τη Eλλαδo 'O&thetas;ωνα' (1833), as well as the reception of 'Oι φατ&egr;ρ&egr;' by one of Palamas' most important poetic heirs, Yorgos Seferis.