Die poësie van Elisabeth Eybers: ’n Digterskap van sewentig jaar

Abstract

The celebration of Elisabeth Eybers’ 90th birthday on 26th February 2005 was a fitting occasion to take stock of this remarkable poet. She celebrated this occasion by publishing her twenty-first volume of poetry Valreep / Stirrup-cup, a poetic farewell to a life lived to the full. Her Versamelde gedigte (Collected Verse) spans a period of sixty-three years, from the publication of Belydenis in die skemering (Confessions in the twilight) in 1936 to her latest volume of poetry. My intention is to pay homage and to reappraise her work. In reappraising her work I follow in the main the method of close reading, a methodology, which despite its shortcomings, is “the best technique for revealing beauty and meaning in literature” as Camille Paglia rightly maintains in Break, Blow, Burn (2005). Furthermore, my approach follows Eybers’ concept that poetry is closely linked to music and that a good poem should comply to the rules of rhythm and purity of sound. I shall follow as point of departure her seven poems set to music by the South African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr in his song cycle Die stil avontuur (The quiet adventure). In discussing Eybers’ middle period, i.e. her collections published between 1950 and 1958, I argue that her poetry is as eloquent in its expression of joy as it is of sorrow. Following her emigration to The Netherlands in 1961, her most productive period followed. Her stature as a poet was confirmed with the award of the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1991, the highest honour to befall a Dutch poet. With the initial alienation from her native country and her eventual homecoming in another country, her poetic range expanded enormously. All along her connection to South Africa was not broken. She continues writing in Afrikaans, and her poetry bears testimony to the ongoing creative processes in search of self-realization.