NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/misc/writing/3450

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-09 | 8.1 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!psgrain!hippo!ucthpx!uctvax.uct.ac.za!hornpete
From: [e-mail] (Peter Horn)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: An Axe in the Ice, published
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 9 Nov 92 10:21:20 +0200
Organization: University of Cape Town
Lines: 228

COSAW Publishing House has just published:
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Peter Horn, An Axe in the Ice, Poems, COSAW Publishing House 1992
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Some other poetry by Peter Horn:
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Peter Horn, Walking through our sleep, Poems, Ravan Press,
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Johannesburg 1974



Silence in Jail (1977)
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The Civil War Cantoes (1987)
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were banned until 1991, and are out of print, but are contained
in Poems 1964-1989



Peter Horn, Poems 1964 - 1989, Ravan Press, Johannesburg 1991
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Honourable Mention: The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa 1992
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WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT PETER HORN

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A new beginning for South African Poetry
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Dirk Klopper in: Staffrider



Inasmuch as Horn's poems are both unashamedly political and
highly crafted, they demonstrate that materialist and formalist
concerns are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and that it is
possible for a poet to dedicate his writing to a political cause
without automatically sacrificing technical achievement [...]

The ten poems that comprise The Plumstead Elegies constitute a
sustained meditation on the nature and function of poetry in a
society riven by violence, injustice and exploitation. In these
elegies, Horn re-examines the basis of his writing and recommits
himself to finding an appropriate poetic voice. [...]

The notable features of the Civil War Cantoes are their
simplicity of expression, their attention to concrete detail,
and their explicit conscientising purpose. [...]

The Plumstead Elegies and The Civil War Cantoes will, I am
convinced, reveal to posterity that we, too, had our Neruda, our
voice of conscience, in our dark night of oppression.

Dirk Klopper, Staffrider



It also shows the extent to which a poem becomes that of a whole
fighting community. [...] the majority of the poems in The Civil
War Cantos can be viewed as a series of hammer-blows, striking
every argument home in the twin wish to rally the people and to
strengthen their determination [...] accompanied by an appeal to
reflect on the root-causes [...] the rhetoric is subtle though
terribly efficient [...] a truthful testimony on the present
atmosphere inside a country going through the throes of becoming
a nation. As an echo of the role that cultural action takes in
the present struggle, it is invaluable, the more so because it
is, to date, the most complete, single-handed rendering of it.

Jacques Alvarez-Pereyre, Southern African Review of Books.



Totalitarian regimes have the citizens and poets they deserve,
those who accept the bayonets upon which order is based and who,
by their silence or useless chatter, make themselves the
accomplices of those who rule. Peter Horn is not one of these:
he has chosen on the side of the oppressed, on the side of the
future, of the dream of a multiracial society; in short on the
side of freedom. [...] Like the astrologer, he invites his
fellow citizens to read the signs of destiny written, not in the
stars, but in their own actions [...]

Jacques Alvarez-Pereyre, The Poetry of Commitment in South
Africa. Heinemann


This book stands among the most necessary writing that has been
produced in this country in the last quarter of a century. Horn
has wrenched his poetic syntax away from the prosody and forms
of European traditions. He has forged a blunt, at times brutal
rhythm as part of apoetic vehicle whose project is to remind a
society of itself politically and socially. With marked success
he makes "socially privileged" readers/listeners angry,
uncomfortable [...] Horn's output is often compelled by an
intense, burning anger, that, when focused, creates the most
moving and elegaic poetry. It would reach into any person with a
shred of compassion.

Rod MacKenzie, Weekly Mail


Horn strips away not only metaphor but also any hints of
'poetic' beauty [...] Horn's lines as far as some readers are
concerned will seem to lack beauty, in that language is washed
of poetic figures. But for others again, his poetry may have a
powerful resonance, carried primarily in ideas rather than
images [...] 'individuality' is eliminated in favour of the
collective self. In the above lines, there is accord between
social and personal projections, for the informing intelligence
is one that has been politicized. It is perhaps not surprising
that Horn's anti-poetic approach should have affinities with
that of the 'new austerity' of much of European poetry produced
since World War II. [...] It is Horn's achievement to have shown
that an art of the unattractive can have its own kind of
'beauty' [...]

Michael Chapman, South African English Poetry. A Modern
Perspective. A.D.Donker


Poems sincere to the point of pain.

Natal Witness


He admits his own role, fears, doubts and inadequacies, while
questioning the function, role and nature of poetry. His often
diverse and contradictory perceptions and reaction to the
continually changing political sphere add to the work's
credibility as a realistic expos of the SA political situation
over time.

Peter Galli, Business Day



Along with the emergence of popular oral poets such as Mzwakhe
Mbuli, Mi Hlatshwayo and Alfred Qabula, Horn perfected his
poetics and produced a body of work which is at once accessible,
rich in irony, ethically uncompromising and aesthetically
accomplished. A.W. Oliphant, New Nation



Peter Horn is as vigorous and versatile a poet as any in South
Africa ... he not infrequently achieves poems of memorable force
or beauty.

Lionel Abrahams, Rand Daily Mail.


Peter Horn's poetry is prickly and sharp, bristling with
reminders of the abyss ever likely to open at our feet ... His
wise cynical self-mockery is another saving grace: it places him
firmly among the sinners ... This poet scrupulously shares our
guilt. Eastern Province Herald

Horn often manages to unite inner and outer South African
landscapes to capture the spiritual centre of the forms
suffering can take in this country.

Cherry Clayton, Snarl



It is a beautiful and moving work which seems to have jumped
Aragon's 'cage of words' and found the door of this 'world of
black and white'.

Marguerite Edmonds, New Nation



Horn has made a major contribution to the development of a
literary aesthetic which encodes the social and psychological
dimensions of life in South Africa under totalitarian conditions

New Nation


Art Fosters Revolt:
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Recitals by national artists at which
freedom songs were sung,and which could lead to an emotionally
explosive situation, (are) becoming prevalent.

Stoffel Botha (Minister of Home Affairs), June 1988

--
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Peter Horn
German Department, UCT
43 Trevor Road, Lansdowne 7764, Cape, Republic of  South Africa .
Phone Home ZA-[phone]        e-Mail: [e-mail]
      Work ZA-[phone]        Fax ZA-[phone]
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Peter Horn, Walking through our sleep (Poems), Ravan Press 1974
Peter Horn, Poems 1964-1989, Ravan Press 1991
Peter Horn, An Axe in the Ice (Poems), COSAW Publishing House
forthcoming September/October 1992
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Ravan Press, P.O.Box 31134, Braamfontein 2017, Republic of South Africa
COSAW Publishing House, P.O.Box 421007, Fordsburg 2033, Republic of
South Africa.
USA: Ohio University Press Fax [phone]
Britain: Central Books, Fax [phone]
Australia: New Era Books, Fax [phone]
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