Starting with the books Gałąź Kwitnąca (1908) and Uśmiechy Godzin (Smiles of the Hours) (1910), classical trends began to prevail in his poetry, expressed in the search for peace, harmony and beauty. Staff refers to the world of ancient realities, and uses many artistic tricks characteristic of classical works. As Irena Maciejewska wrote:
Staff is considered to be the most outstanding representative of classicism in Polish poetry of the 20th century, understood both as the poetics of creativity and as a philosophy of order and harmony with life, as a striving for integration of various currents of European culture – ancient and Christian.
Since the release of the translation of Staff’s Flowers of St Francis of Assisi in 1910, with his introduction, Franciscan motifs begin to appear and intensify in his work (already present since For Birds of the Air), often blending with classical tendencies – preaching humility instead of power, affirmation of life, joy and the praise of existence. The subsequent books are, as Jerzy Kwiatkowski wrote, ‘a period of artistic regression, which – with some interruptions – will last until the 1930s’. At that time, Staff published, amongst others, the book Rainbow of Tears and Blood (1918) containing works related to the experiences and problems of the First World War and a book of religious lyrics titled The Needle’s Eye, which was awarded the State Prize for Literature.
Leopold Staff at Morskie Oko, photo: East NewsParallel to his lyrical work, Staff's dramaturgy developed, focusing on similar topics and problems (especially the relationship between reality and dreams) as in his poems – he created a fairy tale, allegorical tragedy Treasure (1904), then Godiva (1906) based on a medieval legend, as well as Igrzyska (The Games) (1909), which took place at the end of the Roman Empire and at the beginning of Christianity, and Wawrzyny (1912), based on a legend about two brothers-builders of St. Mary's Church in Kraków. He also created two dramas approaching realism – To Samo (The Same) (1912) and Południca (Lady Midday) (1920), a drama about peasants.
In the books Tall Trees (1932) and Colors of Honey (1936) Staff strives for more concise means of expression, turns to everyday life, breaks with pathetic metaphors and replaces them with everyday specifics. A peculiar kind of humour appears, the poet accentuates his sceptic stance. This was also due to the influence of his friends, the Skamandrites, for whom he was a master and patron.
Leopold Staff, Warsaw in the 1950s, photo: East NewsAnother breakthrough in his work occurs with the Wiklina (Wickerwork) collection (1954) and Dziewięć Muz (Nine Muses) (published posthumously in 1958), where the poet broke with the traditional metric systems, modernised the way of imaging and created a vision of the word which cared less for harmony and was more self-ironic. From the perspective of the contemporary reader, the first of these can be considered the most outstanding and mature poetry book in Leopold Staff's oeuvre.
As Jerzy Kwiatkowski wrote:
Leopold Staff's poetry is an example of astonishing longevity and astonishing regenerative abilities – the only one of this scale in Polish literature (...). Staff is a co-creator of several literary periods, eagerly referred to as epochs by literary historians. In each of these periods, he plays the leading role.
Staff also maintained a rich and diverse translation activity – he was one of the most prominent Polish translators. He translated from ancient languages as well as French, Italian, German and English. He worked on, amongst others, Jan Kochanowski's Latin elegiacs and epigrams, the Book of Psalms, Zygmunt Krasiński's French works, works by writers of antiquity (Epicurus, Democritus, Heraclitus, The Feast of Trimalchio from Petronius' Satyricon), Middle Ages (Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi and The Golden Legend by Jacobus Voragine), the Renaissance (writings of Leonardo da Vinci, poetry of Michelangelo), as well as those of modernity – works of Diderot, Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther, Roman Elegies, Reineke Fuchs), Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morality, Joyful Wisdom, The Antichrist, The Birth of Tragedy, Ecce Homo, Untimely Meditations), novels by Thomas Mann, novels by Italians (d'Annuzia and Delledy), Frenchmen (Rolland) and Scandinavians (Hamsun, Lagerlöf and others). Many of his translations included commentaries and introductions.