Ivan Drach (b. 1936) numbers among the Ukraine’s gifted modern poets. He was educated at Kiev University and upon graduation worked first as a teacher and then as a newspaper correspondent. His first published collection “Sunflower” (1960) invited attention to his striking personality and the intelligence, originality, and metaphoric boldness of his poetry. His next book "The Solar Prominences of the Heart" (1965) evoked much discussion in the press. Drach is seeking his own ways of developing modern poetic diction and in doing so draws on the wealth of the Ukrainian language. He is an innovator not only as regards form (involved associational lines, musically picturesque expressiveness, original rhythms) but also as regards content. Drach’s poetry, in which he strives to bring out the general in the personal, and the universal in the national, is notable for the wide range of interests it embraces, for its intellectual depth.