POLIDORI, MARIA

born 1905, Kalmai, Greece died 1930, Athens Polidori also spelled Polydore Greek poet known for her impassioned, eloquent farewell to life. Polidori was orphaned as a small child, and in 1921 she went to Athens to study law. There she began a friendship with another poet, Kstas Kariotkis. In 1926 she went to Paris, returning two years later, fatally ill. In 1930 she entered a sanatorium near Athens, where she died. Her two books of poems reflect her awareness of impending death. The tone alternates between bitter questioning and a cold resignation in which she seems to contemplate her own pain from outside herself.