Vondste uit de oude doos: Hommage á T.T. Cloete

Abstract

Six decades ago T.S. Eliot (1932:49) emphasized that no poet "has his complete meaning alone" and advocated a historical sense that realized the "pastness of the past" but also the presence of the past. T.T. Cloete puts his ideal in effect in three poems: "Leipoldt 100" can be read as a "catalogue of connotations" (Riffaterre, 1982:9), representing a positive appraisal of Leipoldt's oeuvre: "Hommage á CM v d Heever" offers a homage "for little", implicating Van den Heever'spoems "Die vertrekkende wildeganse" and "Die gevalle Zoeloe-indoena"; the poem "N.a.v. FvdH WEGL en JFEC" comments upon the outdated theme of idealizing the farm and country as in Toon van den Heever's and W.E.G. Louw's poetry and criticizes Jan F.E. Celliers's style as drcnvling. The three poems p resent an estimation of a considerable part of the Afrikaans history of literature.