After the war Wierzyński returned to Warsaw, where he lived up to the beginning of WWII. In 1924 he began to work with the monthly magazines Skamander and Wiadomości Literackie, and in 1930 he became the literary and theatre critic for Gazeta Polska. He also edited the weekly magazine Kultura from 1931 to 1932, as well as Przeglad Sportowy from 1926 to 1931.
In 1928, he was awarded a gold medal from a literary contest held during the IX Olympic Games. Later, in 1935, he would also receive the Złoty Wawrzyn (Gold Laurel Wreath) from the Polish Academy of Literature (PAL) and, one year later, the National Literary Award. In 1938 he was nominated to become a member of PAL. After the outbreak of the war, he and the other staff of Gazeta Polska were evacuated to Lviv.
Finally, in 1941, Wierzyński emigrated to the USA – via France, Portugal and Brazil – where he became a founding member of the editorial committee of Tygodnik Polski (Polish Weekly). His work was published in London and Paris through the Instytut Literacki. During this period he also worked for Radio Free Europe, eventually moving back to Europe in 1964. He settled first in Rome and then in London, where he died in 1969. In 1978 his ashes were brought back to Poland.
Wierzyński's inter-war literary work began with the poetry volumes Wiosna i Wino (Spring and Wine, 1919) and Wróble Na Dachu (Sparrows on the Roof, 1921), both of which introduced Poland to chunky poems that express the joy of life and living – a pointed contrast to the Polish tradition of serious, formal poetry. These are the works of a robust young man, a man steeped in the reality of modern urban civilization. He is bursting with joy, lives a carefree life and protests against the severity and senseless rules of the old world order.
But all of this changed in his next book of poems, Wielka Niedzwiedzica (Great Bear, 1923). Here, Wierzyński's poetry sheds its euphoria in favour of profound reflections on the complexities of life and the world around him (also included in the volume are poems written between 1914 and 1918). Wierzyński's masterpiece, Laur Olimpijski (Olympian Laurel, 1927), is composed of portraits of sportsmen in action. A combination of realism and acute observation, it is coloured by pathos and hyperbole. It praises sport for its moral values and its endeavour to transcend human limitations.
His next volume, Pieśni Fanatyczne (Fanatical Songs, 1929), is an examination of urban poverty, an analysis that reflects the vision of Schulz and foreshadows Białoszewski's poems about urban solitude.
Wolność Tragiczna (Tragic Freedom, 1936), a biography of Piłsudski, includes poetic epitaphs that create the legend of an illustrious loner out of the myths surrounding him, painting a picture of a leader who outgrows his country and tries in vain to transform it into a great nation. The last of Wierzyński's books published before the war, Kurhany (Barrows, 1938), is filled with pathos in its descriptions of mainly 19th-century heroes of national mythology. Along the same lines, Wstążka z Warszawianki, written in August 1939, provides a synthesis of Polish mythology. The protagonist here is also Pilsudski, and the poem's final line is: "Something like an ancient tragedy, something like a quiet village".
During the WWII Wierzyński was prolific, publishing a total of five volumes. As a spokesman for fighting Poland, he accompanied Polish soldiers as they fought for the right to have a fatherland and for the preservation of European humanism. In his work this was depicted as a tragic struggle, full of delusions and disappointment, as is evident in the titles of his books: Ziemia-Wilczyca (The Earth-Wolf Mother) and Krzyże i Miecze (Crosses and Swords).