18 Facts About Constantine Cavafy

Constantine Cavafy, was a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria.

Constantine Cavafy wrote 155 poems, while dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form.

Constantine Cavafy was born in 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents who originated from the Greek community of Constantinople, and was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church.

Constantine Cavafy's father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years and acquired British nationality.

In 1885, Constantine Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life.

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Constantine Cavafy received little recognition because his style differed markedly from the then-mainstream Greek poetry.

Constantine Cavafy's poetry is taught in school in Greece and Cyprus, and in universities around the world.

Constantine Cavafy was instrumental in the revival and recognition of Greek poetry both at home and abroad.

Constantine Cavafy's poems are, typically, concise but intimate evocations of real or literary figures and milieux that have played roles in Greek culture.

Constantine Cavafy was a perfectionist, obsessively refining every single line of his poetry.

Constantine Cavafy's mature style was a free iambic form, free in the sense that verses rarely rhyme and are usually from 10 to 17 syllables.

Constantine Cavafy drew his themes from personal experience, along with a deep and wide knowledge of history, especially of the Hellenistic era.

In 1911, Constantine Cavafy wrote "Ithaca", inspired by the Homeric return journey of Odysseus to his home island, as depicted in the Odyssey.

Almost all of Constantine Cavafy's work was in Greek; yet, his poetry remained unrecognized and underestimated in Greece, until after the publication of the first anthology in 1935 by Heracles Apostolidis .

Constantine Cavafy is known for his prosaic use of metaphors, his brilliant use of historical imagery, and his aesthetic perfectionism.

Constantine Cavafy wrote over a dozen historical poems about famous historical figures and regular people.

Constantine Cavafy praises the Hellenistic era and idea, so condemning the closed-mind and localistic ideas about Hellenism.

Selections of Constantine Cavafy's poems appeared only in pamphlets, privately printed booklets and broadsheets during his lifetime.