Voices of this land is a new and expanded edition of what has become one of the standard collections of South African poetry written in English. It includes poems ranging from the colonial period right up to the present and encourages readers to revel in the power, richness and diversity of South African poetry.

Poetry has to do something more than reproduce power struggles and their justifications in arbitrarily shortened lines, using obscure language, garnished with imagery. Rather, poetry should use language to reproduce and deepen the senses and emotions as well as the consciousness and ideas that are an inseparable part of experience.