What are the main themes Joseph Brodsky writes about in his poetry?

Joseph Brodsky writes about a variety of themes in his
poetry. Poet W.H. Auden introduced a collection of Brodsky's poetry, stating that the
theme Brodsky wrote about dealt with nature, the quality of life, the "human condition,"
and dying.

Roman, Carribean and Mexican literature provided
Brodsky with the inspiration for many of his poems. Auden noted that drawing on this
kind of writing, the poet mixed...

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...the physical and the metaphysical, place and
ideas about place, now and the past and the
future.

During Brodsky's
American exile from Russia, he produced a collection of old and newly written works in a
volume called, To Urania: Selected Poems 1965–1985. The themes in
this collection concentrated on "memory, home and
loss."

One theme that kept reappearing in Brodsky's poetry
reflected what he saw as the connection between the poet and society. He was confused as
to why Americans did not embrace poetry the way Russians did, and he felt that poetry
should be distributed to the masses (free) in the United States so that he could better
understand poetry.

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He suggested that the Western literary tradition
was in part responsible for the world having overcome the catastrophes of the twentieth
century, such as Nazism, Communism and the World
Wars.

Brodsky's passion for
poetry was not just reflected in his writing, but also in the way he viewed the world.
He sincerely believed that poets and poetry could change the world—that poetry was
more than a collection of words or an art form, but a language—a
unique form of communication—with great power.