Vladimír Holan is now regarded in Czechoslovakia as one of the most outstanding living poets. Yet fom 1948 until 1963 official disapproval of his poetry forced him to live in isolation. Those grim years inspired his finest work: he developed themes of man's suffering, is lost innocence and the frustration of life in a world of ambiguities. Originally influenced by surrealism, he makes use of the justaposition of unexpected images to evoke in the reader his owns sense of the strangeness of human existence.