Dennis Brutus is certainly the best-known and perhaps the finest poet writing in English to come from South Africa. Apart from his early lyrics, most of his poetry is committed to the struggle against oppression and racism, but much of it simultaneously expresses commitment to the land and to individual people. His substantial gifts as an international political organizer have limited his time for writing poetry, but his assured style, passionate dedication, and international outlook have ensured substantial acclaim. It would be misguided to believe that "the poetry lies in the activism," in the way that British World War I poet Wilfred Owen thought that for war poetry "the poetry lies in the pity." Brutus has been condemned by activists for not writing more poetry in slogans and by conservative-minded critics for writing political poetry at all; in fact he has been able to write poetry with a...