11 Facts About Nikos Kavvadias

Nikos Kavvadias was a Greek poet, writer and a sailor by profession.

Nikos Kavvadias used his travels around the world, the life at sea and its adventures, as powerful metaphors for the escape of ordinary people, outside the boundaries of reality.

Nikos Kavvadias's poems are widely regarded as belonging to symbolism, and he has been characterized by some as a poete maudit.

Nikos Kavvadias believed that this had established a permanent connection between him and the Far East as he wrote in one of his short stories titled "Li".

Nikos Kavvadias's parents were Greek, originating from the island of Kefalonia and as a young child he had the opportunity to travel extensively.

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Nikos Kavvadias's family returned to their island of origin for a few years before finally moving to Piraeus in 1921.

In 1928, after having graduated from high school he sat an entrance exam for medical school but as his father fell sick the same year, young Nikos Kavvadias was forced to get a job as an office clerk in a shipping company to help his family.

Nikos Kavvadias lasted only a few months and after his father's death, he went on board the freighter ship Agios Nikolaos as a sailor.

Nikos Kavvadias is popular among Greeks and his best poems are taught at schools.

Nikos Kavvadias is considered by many to embody much of the "Greek soul" because of his romantic affiliation with the sea and its journeys and for his genuinely humane outlook.

Since 1967, many of Nikos Kavvadias' poems have been incorporated in the music of other Greek artists.