Leopold Henryk Staff (November 14, 1878 – May 31, 1957) was a Polish poet; an artist of European modernism twice granted the Degree of Doctor honoris causa by universities in Warsaw and in Kraków.

[1] Representative of classicism and symbolism in the poetry of Young Poland, he was an author of many philosophical poems influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (from whom he translated several books into Polish), the ideas of Franciscan order as well as paradoxes of Christianity.

[citation needed] He studied law and philosophy at the Lwów University, and in 1918 settled in Warsaw at the cusp of Poland's return to independence.

He died at the age of 78 in Skarżysko-Kamienna soon after the end of Stalinism in postwar Poland, and was buried in Warsaw at the renowned Powązki Cemetery.

[2] Staff was highly influential in the interwar period, including in the literary life of Julian Tuwim, one of Poland's best-known poets.