Before one deals with the contemporary poetry of Poland, it is necessary to take a look at the cultural environment in which, or even against which, this poetry is (constantly re-)written. The previous session (see A History of Poland) dealt with the history of the country; the next (Polish Poetry) is an anthology of Polish verse until the Second World War. In-between, however, one must consider for a moment some of the principal themes and phenomena of Polish literature.

These include the 16th-18th c. mythology/ideology of Sarmatism; Polish Romanticism; a reaction to the Romantics in Organic Work; and the extraordinary status of Poland's first literary Nobel Prize winner.