A Simple Lust: Selected poems including Sirens knuckles boots, Letters to Martha, Poems from Algiers, Thoughts abroad

by Dennis Brutus

Book by Brutus, Dennis

Genres: Poetry, South Africa, Africa, African Literature

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Dennis Vincent Brutus was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet. Brutus, imprisoned along with Nelson Mandela in the cell next to his, was an opponent of the apartheid South African regime.

Reviews

[Eric]

Denis Brutus, from southern Africa, was a very polished, assiduous poet. Think about "difficult" rather academic African poets – eg Lenrie Peters, Wole Soyinka, Dambudzo Marechera - and most would surely plump for Brutus as belonging to this category. This early work of his clearly shows why most categorize him as a "protest poet" which was understandable in view of the egregious, horrifying apartheid system that held sway during that time in his homeland. Brutus created superb poetry despite all these strictures, and African poetry is the better for it. The celebrated poem, "a troubador I traverse..." showcases the poet at his best, as a sublime, subtle versifier. But this collection is redolent with all the accoutrements of fine poetry - personification, rhymes, stunning rhythms, litotes, metaphor, simile, and the entire gamut. An early giant of African poetry, Mr Brutus. Sadly, a few years ago, he and another poet of such ilk, Kofi Awoonor, breathed their last.

[Paul]

Nice poems

[Bethan]

didn’t like it as much as i thought

[PBS Parkview Baptist School]

Review by Parkview student, Katelyn:

"The book, "A Simple Lust," written by Dennis Brutus, is a novel filled with poems, letters and thoughts from South Africans during the 1960's. This book was published in 2973.

The book expresses loss, hardship, anger and love from the experiences of their day-to-day life. Either talking about the comfort of a loved one or looking back on the horror of slavery. The stories are so vivid and really explain the author's true feelings toward different outlooks. It's so very important that these stories were accumulated and published to show everyone the real and devastating lives in the '60's. It gives a great insight of not just the time period, but the ones that had to endure it.

The writing is beautiful and really allows you to imagine. It's powerful and very difficult at times to actually grasp the meaning because of the intense literature. Honestly you can't really judge this book because it's not just random thoughts, it's people's lives and what they had to go through. They were treated like cattle, just working, eating, sleeping, beaten and ridiculed for everything they did. It took strong souls to survive what they went through.

It's truly an eye-opener to all the people who never thought twice about the slavery period and the slaves whose lives were altered forever."

[Mills College Library]

821 B913s 1973

[Jason]

read "Letters to Martha"