 Following the publication of his first body of work in 1946, ("Trapeze and Bars"), he was awarded the Baumgarten Prize in 1947.While "Trapéz és korlát" consists of only 18 poems, it established Pilinszky as a major poetic force in Hungary.His next publication, 1959's ("On the third day"), was not released for over 10 years as a result of his being labeled “pessimistic” by the ruling Hungarian Communist Party in the 1950s.