Eduardas Miezelaitis emerged in the mid 1940s to become one of the most popular postwar authors in Soviet Lithuania. A poet of prodigious scope and ability, Miezelaitis played a prominent role in the revitalization of the lyrical quality and texture of Lithuanian poetry. Fusing traditional folk elements with modernist techniques associated with symbolism and literary expressionism, Miezelaitis sought to create a synthesis of poetic forms: canonic and blank verse, prose and dialogue, and musicality and dissonance. He perceived poetry as a vehicle by which to explore the meaning and purpose of art, as well as the relationship between the artist and reality. Acknowledged as a major innovator in the development of Lithuanian literature, Miezelaitis has been criticized in present-day Lithuania for his adherence to Soviet ideology.

Miezelaitis was born on 3 October 1919 in the village of Kareiviskiai in the area of Pakruojis. He later described his native village:

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