Among Greek poets, Decavalles was most influenced by Giorgos Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, both identified with the modernist movement.
His poems do not confine themselves to formal structures, but in "the organic shape that each particular poem imposes on the poet," which "has more to do with the manipulation of images, meaning, and musicality than with deliberate structure"[3] Decavalles was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to George Andonis Manganaris and Maria Decavalles,[4] originally from the Cycladic island of Sifnos.
His paternal great-grandfather George Manganaris and great-granduncle Deacon Avramios received the Prize of Valor for their part in the Greek War of Independence.
Decavalles adopted his mother's family name as his nom de plume in honor of his maternal grandfather, a poet of local prominence.
Beginning in his years at gymnasium and throughout the war, Decavalles wrote formal poetry and short stories, some of which were published in Alexandrian Greek dailies.
From 1960 to 1983 he was the Executive Editor as well as a contributor of articles and translations to The Charioteer: An Annual Review of Modern Greek Culture.
From 1947 to 1949, with the encouragement of novelist Stratis Myrivilis, he wrote the poems that were published in his two first books: Nimoule-Gondokoro [Νιμούλε-Γοντοκόρο] in 1949 and Akis [Ακίς][a] in 1950.
He contributed essays and translations to Books Abroad, Chicago Literary Review, and Modern Language Journal.
A 1994 book honoring his work, Andonis Manganaris-Decavalles and his Poetry, was published in Athens by the Cultural Institute of St. John the Theologian.
According to Anastasia Stefanidou, the violent man in the encounter stands for an aspect of contemporary America: a “contradictory, complicated, and even paranoid person who resorts to violence in order to disguise his anxieties and fears.” [8] His language is rich and allusive.
Decavalles explores the ‘dark recesses’ of affection, the deep ‘turnings’ of love, and the ‘unexpected crevices called death.
"[10] Another label applied to Decavalles by Anastasia Stefanidou is that of "a Cosmopolitan Exile"[8] Stefanidou describes his "poetic persona" as someone who, having left the security and comfort of his home, "travels back and forth in space and time in order to reach a fuller appreciation and final reconciliation with the faces, places, values, habits, and dreams he had left behind when he embarked on the life of the cosmopolitan exile."
Stefanidou posits an absolute opposition between the home island of Sifnos and America, the place of exile; they exist in different categories.
For Decavalles, Sifnos is "an imagined, yet powerful, shield against modern America"; it is the poet's "exilic ‘home’" that exists in contrast to urban America and protection from "the harmful effects of modernization on the individual’s life and identity.” Reviewing Decavalles's collection Ransoms to Time, poet and critic Rachel Hadas noted his "considerable achievement, in this well-arranged collection ... to locate, within the mythical framework, both his own subject matter and his own voice.
On August 4, 2019, Decavalles's memory was honored at the Cultural Center of Sifnos with a symposium, "Love of a Lifetime: From Sifnos to America and Back.” His work for the promotion of Greek literature and letters in the United States was lauded, as well as his extensive writings on the poet Odysseus Elytis.
In Kimon Friar's Ta Petrina Matia tis Medhousas: Dokimia [Τα πέτρινα μάτια τής Μέδουσας: Δοκίμια; The Stone Eyes of the Medusa: Essays], Athens: Kedros Publishers, 1981.
Translations from the original Greek of selected poems from Odysseus Elytis’ Maria Nefeli, The Charioteer 24–25 (1982/1983): 59–78.