Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man".

[1][2] Born in Žižkov, a suburb of Prague in what was then part of Austria-Hungary, Seifert's first collection of poems was published in 1921.

In March 1929, he and six other writers left the KSČ after signing a manifesto protesting against Bolshevized Stalinist-influenced tendencies in the new leadership of the party.

Due to bad health, he was not present at the award ceremony, and so his daughter accepted the Nobel Prize in his name.

[4] His burial was marked by a high presence of the communist secret police, the StB, who tried to suppress any hint of dissent on the part of mourners.