Reviews about William Heinesen
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On
Complete Poems
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In his poetry as in his prose, Heinesen has always demonstrated a supreme mastery of language. Like his first and perhaps main inspiration, Johannes V. Jensen, he has stretched the the meaning of ordinary words, molded language into a new and expressive form, and shown a rare intentiveness in metaphor and conceit, whether in the early elegiac reflections or in the later pregnant expressions of a learned conciousness. He is not, generally speaking, a "difficult" poet, any more than his prose is difficult on the surface. Nevertheless, because of his stylistic and structural brilliance and his characteristic mix of social and cosmic perspective, he stands as one of the most thought-provoking writers of Danish in the present centuray. His collected poems provide a convincing demonstrating of this.
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W. Glyn Jones in World Literature Today, 1984
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On
Laterna Magica
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Heinesen has on many occasions before reflected on the subject, but here the theme emerges with greater power and significance than in any previous instance. At the age of eighty-six, Heinesen is clearly writing with as much energy and verve as ever. Long may he continue to do so!
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W. Glyn Jones in World Literature Today, Autumn of 1986
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