This narrative poem is about the legendary figure of Ukrainian literature of the 20th century – the poet and dissident Vasyl Stus. The poet became a symbol of the indomitable Ukrainian spirit. His life and his poems today are perceived as part of the narrative of Ukrainian resistance to imperial aggression and dictatorship. Stus continued the line of spiritual resistance established by Taras Shevchenko in Ukrainian literature. Korotko has reconstructed Stus’s internal struggles in poetic ...