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On
Over My Shoulder
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... Andersen reminds one of those dramatists of the absurd who call an abominable human condition "happy days" and who wring laughter from debasement and human decay. Like those dramatists, Andersen may seem possessed by "a laughing devil" (the title of a thoroughly disturbing text in this volume), who makes one laugh when crying would have been more appropriate.
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Niels Ingwersen in World Literature Today, the Winter of 1985
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On
The Time and the Stork
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Andersen´s many-faceted poems provoke thoughts and moods which will haunt the reader. They fascinate both by their message and by their admirable linguistic artistry, which opens up new, unexpected dimensions and insights. The slim volume contains a stylistic complexity and philosophic richness that combine to set it apart from most verse written these days.
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Sven H. Rossel in World Literature Today, the Spring of 1987
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On
All this Coming and Going
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The poems in “This Coming and Going” can be pure sophisticated bravura. The master is showing off. They can be lightweight and on occasion slightly moralising in their ‘pull yourself together now’ attitude when the poet’s better self speaks didactically to his slightly worse self, a tone that can just have a touch of holier than thou about it. But the best - and that is most of them - have on the one hand this philosophically wondering tone, and on the other an almost paternally touched attitude, total peaceful energy and active dedication; as said: the poet feels more at home in the world, while at the same time it has become bigger.
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Niels Barfoed in Weekendavisen, 8 October 1993
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On
The World Outside the Preserving Jar
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More than anyone else in his generation, he has recently delved more into the present age and the change in society from a nation state to a multicultural region in the new Europe. To read Benny Andersen’s poems is like receiving a letter from a relative able to remind one of almost forgotten aspects of life. A spiritual vitamin pill.
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Niels Frid-Nielsen in Det fri Aktuelt, 27 September 1996
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On
Cosmopolitan in Denmark and Other Poems about the Danes
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The poet has planted his finger in the Danish language - and taken root. Benny Andersen’s far lower meadows will - as long as the beech is reflected - be seen in literature alongside Grundtvig’s far higher mountains.
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John Chr. Jørgensen in Politiken, 2 October 1995
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