News at Eleven: Today, [C.P.] Cavafy is well known

for writing what might initially seem like two kinds of poems. Beginning in 1911, he wrote poems depicting homosexual desire with an unsensational directness: "They were slow getting dressed, they were sorry to cover/the beauty of their supple nudity/which harmonized so well with the comeliness of their faces." At the same time, he wrote poems about Greek history--not the well-known glories of the classical era but the long decline that finally concluded with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire: "He wasn't completely wrong, poor old Gemistus/(let Lord Andronicus and the patriarch suspect him if they like),/in wanting us, telling us to become pagan once again."

from The New York Times: A Poet's Progress

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