Born to a lower-middle-class family in Warsaw, Gałczyński was evacuated with his parents at the outbreak of World War I, and from 1914 to 1918 he lived in Moscow, where he attended a Polish school.

Returning to Poland in 1918, he studied classics and English language at the University of Warsaw, submitting a dissertation on a non-existent nineteenth-century Scottish poet, Morris Gordon Cheats.

In 1950, he became the object of an ideological battle, his artistic work denounced by Adam Ważyk at the Reunion of Polish Writers as petit bourgeois.

He published the volumes of poetry Enchanted Droshky (1948) ("Zaczarowana dorożka"), Wedding Rings (1949) ("Ślubne obrączki") and Songs (1953) ("Pieśni").

At the time of the People's Republic of Poland, his poem Beloved Country (Ukochany kraj) was made into a socialist feel-good song.

The most famous songs based on a Gałczyński text include the following: Since 1998 a biennial poetry competition has been organised in Szczecin, named Gałczynalie in honour of the poet.

[3] The final curtain is frequently brought into the action, being variously scripted as falling "optimistically", as coming down accidentally and then going up again, or as being lowered by an anteater.