Modern Greek patriotic poetry was created in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Among the revolutionary works of Rīgas Velestinlīs seized by the Austrian authorities in 1797 were three poems: the Hymnos patriōtikos tīs Ellados kai olīs tīs Graikias pros ksanapoktīsin tīs autōn eleftherias (“Patriotic hymn of Greece and all the Greek countries for retrieval of their freedom”, set to the tune of the French La Carmagnole); an adaptation of the German tune Freut euch des Lebens; and his own Thourios (“Battle song”), a 63-couplet anti-Ottoman call for freedom, which became widely known and was translated into French and English.

The arrival of the French on the Ionian Islands (1797-99) set off a wave of democratic enthusiasm. Antōnios Martelaos, an aristocrat from Zakynthos, teacher, and ecclesiastic orator, wrote the Hymnon eis tīn perifīmon Gallian, ton archistratīgon Bonapartī kai ton stratīgon Gentillīn (“Hymn to famous France, to the supreme commander Bonaparte and to General Gentili”). Napoleon's campaign in Egypt inspired Adamantios Koraīs to write the Asma polemistīrion (“War hymn”, 1800) and the Salpisma polemistīrion (“War call”, 1801), in which he sings the praise of the French-Greek brotherhood.

Patriotic verse flourished during the Revolution of 1821. In April 1814 a small booklet with the title Īthika tina poiīmatia (“Some moral verses”) was circulated in Iaşi in Moldavia by the patriot Manouīl Vernardos. It contained 22 poems by himself and others for revolutionary use, with references to antiquity, to the Russian Empire and to the Filiki Etaireia. In November 1821 a poem by Spyridōn Trikoupīs was published in Paris, with the title O Dīmos: Poiīma kleftikon (“Dimos: Kleftic poem”), in the demotic 15-syllable metre. An anthology with the title Asmata kai ponīmatia diaforōn (“Songs and writing by various authors”) was also published by Vernardos in March 1821, including some poems by Rīgas. Even Alexandros Ypsīlantīs and Panagiōtīs Andronikos wrote rhymes.

On the Ionian Islands and particulary Zakynthos, the circle consisting of Antōnio Matesi, Dīmītrios Pelekasīs, Geōrgios Tertsetīs, and Dionysios Tagiapieras sang the praise of heroism in folk songs. Dionysios Solōmos (1798–1857) was related to this circle as well. He succeeded in combining elements of Romanticism and classicism, religious tradition and folk songs, the Greek language and Italian learning into a unity, with which he expressed his patriotism. The Hymn eis tīn Eleftherian (“Hymn to Liberty”, 1824) and Eis ton thanaton tou Lord Bairon (“On the death of Lord Byron”, 1825) are long epic pieces (158 and 166 verses in quatrains). He also wrote the epigram Ī katastrofī tōn Psarōn (“The destruction of Psara”, 1825) and the Eleftheroi Poliorkīmenoi (“The free besieged”, incomplete, 1851) on the defence and sortie of Missolonghi, combining concern for the fatherland with concern for the language: “Is there anything else in my mind but freedom and language?” By 1825, Solōmos’s Hymn was circulating in English, French, Italian, and German.

The poetry of Andreas Kalvos is characterized by a similar international dimension as well. His ideological background was shaped by classicism and Romanticism (influences of Ossian and Edward Young), the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment and of the Revolution. As his early works show, his patriotism led him to the theme of the tragic hero who sacrifices his life for liberty. With his Odes (1824-26), published with a French translation, he became the poet of revolutionary Greece, just like Solōmos with his Hymn. His polylectic and idiosyncratic language is based on modern vernacular Greek, Italian metrical practice, and morphological archaization. He took up the common themes that occupied the Philhellenes and the European press (massacres, heroes, disputes, traitors) and exalted them with vehement enthusiasm.

The lesser gods of patriotic poetry included the Phanariots Iakōvakīs Rizos-Neroulos (Odī eis tous Ellīnas, “Ode to the Greeks”, 1824) and Dīmītrios Mourouzīs, an adept of Solōmos (Poiītikai meletai, “Poetic studies”, 1825).

Patriotic verse continued to be written in revolutionary Greece and in the newly founded Greek state. In 1826 Panagiōtīs Soutsos wrote Tragoudion eis tīn ptōsin tou Mesolongiou (“Song on the fall of Missolonghi”), in 1828 the Asmata Polemistīria (“War hymns”), among which Eis tīn Iōnikīn Falanga (“To the Ionic Phalanx”) was dedicated to the memory of his brother, who had fallen in battle. His verse, like his lyrical play Geōrgios Karaïskakīs (Tria lurika dramata, “Three lyrical dramas”, 1842), attempted to bring the heroes of the Revolution to life in the archaic language which was official in the newly founded kingdom. In 1850 Alexandros Soutsos published the epic poem Tourkomachos Ellas (“Greece fighting the Turks”), which was celebrated as the benchmark of eloquence and raised Soutsos to the status of national poet. In the nationalist climate of the Great Idea, the Phanariots controlled modern poetry; the poetry competition of 1851, chaired by Alexandros Rizos Rangavīs, awarded its prize to Geōrgios Zalokōstas for his Mesolongion, an unimaginative poem in katharevousa.

Conversely, the posthumous reputation of Solōmos was controversial, his language and poetics dismissed as un-Greek by the likes of Aristotelīs Valaōritīs, an active supporter of the Great Idea, who wrote nationalist-historical hymns on the victories and the moral power of the Greeks (Kyra Frosynī; Athanasīs Diakos; Astrapogiannos; Fōteinos). Although his language was demotic, his rhetorical style followed that of the Athens-based Phanariots. Another poet from the Ionian Islands, Gerasimos Markoras (Kefallonia 1826–1911) wrote in a more authentic vein; his heroic poem O orkos (“The oath”, 1875) was inspired by the Ottoman capture of Arkadi Monastery in 1866. The Greek-nationalist struggle on Crete also inspired the verse of the Athenian brothers Achilleas and Geōrgios Paraschos, in the style of Solōmos.