An anthology such as "The Poetry of the Greek Revolution 1821" has the special privilege of presenting in our letters the all-dimensional and ageless epic that continuously carries the free modern Greek life to this day. The incomparable advantage of such a presentation lies in the most radical essence of poetry, in its truth, which this highest art of written word always holds and seeks to project without compromises and historical distortions, bare, as demanded by Makrygiannis, and uncompromising.

The gunpowder and poetry have never been closer to the sun of freedom since the most unimaginable revolution broke out that could then be heard and known in the world: to drive out all the Turks or to perish all (folk song), and the few determined ones charged into the sky of their sweet utopia of freedom; those few initiates of passion and sacred madness for freedom managed to overthrow the disastrous and powerful rule of their Turkish oppressor, who had countless military forces and immeasurable wealth.

When the new, achieved freedom was permanently established in its place with broken marbles, golden ears of grain, sea-battling seas, and mountains sworn to freedom, our poetry never ceased over a span of two centuries to define the character and form that the Revolution of '21 took as a genuine revolutionary act, as an unforgettable essence and lasting reminder of Art and History, to constantly remind souls of the conscious debt to the... divine and all-blooded Homeland, as defined by the verse of Solomos.

On the pages of this publication, the reader will witness the Revolution of '21 in its most vivid and vigorous portrayal; with poems arranged in chronological order, they will traverse the Revolution of '21 in the journey of two centuries, from the years of the Revolution to the early decades of the 21st century; from the folk songs of the Greek people to the modern poetry of contemporary writing.

The reception of the Poetic Revolution can thus be a reflective and substantial participation in the cause of freedom, which both today's times demand from the always free yet always besieged. The first part of this anthology includes folk songs created, sung, and danced by the Greek poetic people, after the Revolution of '21 was proclaimed and subsequently completed.

46 revolutionary songs from various regions of Greece are drawn from reputable collections previously published by folklorists: Nikolaos G. Politis, the Academy of Athens, Georgios Chasiotis, Panagiotis Aravantinos, Arnold Passow, and Georgia Tarsouli. The accompanying Appendix contains 11 songs attributed to or said to have been composed by Kolokotronis, Makrygiannis, Theodoros Grivas, and other known figures who participated in the armed Liberation Struggle.

In the second part, works written by our poets from the years of the Revolution up to poems published within the first two decades of the 21st century are anthologized. In a large cycle of artistic inspiration and honor for the freedom gifted to us by the Revolution of '21, these pages include 205 poetic works written by 140 creators, covering the uninterrupted poetic continuity of two centuries.

All poetic generations, schools, forms, and currents of lyrical writing are included. From the ancestors of our revolutionary poetry, Solomos and Kalvos, the verse continues with representatives of Phanariot poetry, with the Ionian Solomonic poets, and the Romantics of the so-called Athenian School. The succession with the praises for the national liberation image of '21 is vividly renewed later in the significant era of Palamas, his contemporaneous poets, and his successors.

When the next great poetic stations of our time appear, such as Sikelianos, Karyotakis, Malakasis, Varnalis, and other distinguished creators of that era, all of them will breathe new life into the Poetic '21. The interwar years will bring radical changes to our letters with Seferis' poetry, which will change everything in art.

Great poets of the Generation of '30, such as Ritsos, Elytis, Eggonopoulos, and their successors, will give new receptions and extensions to the poetry of freedom and the conscious debt to the Revolution of '21 during the years of World War II, the Occupation, and the Civil War.

The post-war generations of our poets, First and Second, nurtured by Surrealism and other artistic avant-gardes, will give new wings to the essential memories of the Revolution, while the modern creators of our contemporary post-Junta days continue to enrich the great glorification of '21 with new works to this day.

This is the continuous journey in memory and knowledge that our poetry has bestowed for two centuries of continuity on the freedom we achieved since 1821.