[The funeral of George Seferis] proved to be a more or less spontaneous public event, not to say political demonstration, of a kind normally reserved in Greece for the passing of popular prime ministers illegally out of office. The drama and symbolism of it—thousands of young people raising the victory sign at the poet's grave, shouting "immortal", "freedom", "elections", and singing an early Seferis lyric … would surely have surprised the poet himself even more than it may have surprised his readers in England and America. Less than three years before his death …, Seferis declared, in one of the few interviews he allowed to appear in print:

I am sorry to say that I never felt I was the. spokesman for anything or anybody…. I've never felt the obligation…. Others think they are the voices of the country. All right. God bless them….

When Seferis published a volume...