I believe that Arthur Nortje’s poem, “Waiting”, is about the speaker’s struggle to find meaning and purpose in his life when confronted by “a hole in the mind’s foundation”- the possible decimation of all that he believed to be true about the anti apartheid struggle on which he has based his life. The actions he has felt compelled to undertake in order to realize his hopes for his country have come …showed first 75 words of 1104 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1104 total…the barren, abrasive grains of truth that his “amplitude of sentiment” has been naïve and ineffectual. Thus, his “waiting”, for validation, is tangible. Bibliography Abrams, M.H. 1999. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company. Montgomery, M. et al. 1992. Ways of Reading: Advanced reading skill for students of English literature. London: Routledge. Nortje, Arthur. 1993. “Waiting”. In: Anderson,Kossick & Pereira (eds). A New University Anthology of English Poetry. Cape Town: Oxford Oxford University Press.