Breyten Breytenbach Critical Essay | Critical Review by Barend J. Toerien

SOURCE: Review of Die hand vol vere: 'n bloemlesing van die poësie, met twee briewe, in World Literature Today, Vol. 71, No. 1, Winter 1997, p. 210.

In the following review, Toerien offers a positive assessment of Die hand vol vere.

A selection of Breyten Breytenbach's poetry made by his friend and academic Ampie Coetzee has the disarming title A Hand Full of Feathers, an Afrikaans idiom for empty-handedness and one which the author has used on several occasions in earlier poems. The selection also contains some new poems as well as two letters between the two friends.

It is a generous selection, but it can never be generous enough. Breytenbach's output is so large and of such a consistently high standard, that only a complete collection of his poetry can satisfy: that will no doubt come some day. Meanwhile, here is Coetzee's choice. He has also included poems from...
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