Most critics today agree that Augustin ("Tin") Ujevic is one of the greatest modern South Slavic poets; indeed, he has been called the greatest Balkan poet since Homer. Ujevic's work breathed new life, new energies, and new sensations into South Slavic poetry. One of the leading figures of South Slavic modernism, Ujevic contributed to the new modern and cosmopolitan quality of South Slavic poetry and helped to erase its sense of belatedness in European culture. With the writing of Ujevic and contemporaries such as Rastko Petrovic and Milos Crnjanski, South Slavic poetry reached unprecedented heights of creativity and sophistication.

Though Ujevic's poetry often employed classical forms such as the sonnet, his sensibility was very modern. In his fusion of form and content he tried to achieve a new modern mode of expression going beyond his classical models. Ujevic was often regarded as a poet maudit (damned poet) by...