Milosz witnessed the destruction of Warsaw, survived as a resistance courier, defected to the West, and spent 30 years as a professor in California. All of this found its way into a poetry that is simultaneously metaphysical, historical, and grateful for the sheer persistence of the world. "A Song on the End of the World" and "Dedication" are among the century's essential poems. Nobel Prize 1980.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.