Abstract

To Name the Wrong

It is possible for a poet to assume his gift of articulation as a responsibility not only to the fates but to his neighbors, and to feel himself obligated to try to speak for those who are in circumstances resembling his own, but who are less capable of bearing witness to them. There are many kinds of dangers involved in any such view of what he owes himself and his voice. According to the author, he had to talk about poet Agostinho Neto as though he were dead the author mean that, after he had read what poems of his have found their way into print, and what information about him has managed to evade the obscurantists who govern his country. The dominant themes of Neto's poetry are the relation between his personal predicament and the experience of the people among whom he grew up. Such a preoccupation has led some poets toward propaganda; they have employed their talents in the making of public announcements.