JASTRUN, MIECZYSLAW

born Oct. 29, 1903, Korolwka, near Tarnopol, Austria-Hungary [now in Ukraine] died Feb. 23, 1983, Warsaw, Pol. Polish poet and essayist. Jastrun received his doctorate in Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University of Krakw. The dozen volumes of poems that he published between the two world wars show his growth from an imitator of the poets of the Skamander group to an independent and mature poet with a mastery of form. He survived World War II by remaining in hiding in Warsaw. His wartime poems were published in 1944 under the title Godzina strzezona (A Curfew Hour), but his best poems were written after the thaw of 1956, as, for instance, Goracy popil (1956; Hot Ashes) and Genezy (1959; Genesis). He was also the author of popular biographical novels on such great Polish poets as Adam Mickiewicz (1949) and Jan Kochanowski (1954).