I, You and Cymbeline: an exploration of Shakespeare's influence in the poetry of Noel Brettell

Abstract

“You, in as distant far a country,
Beyond the touch of brush or pen,
Secure behind the painted curtains,
Are all of Imogen.”
(“I, You and Cymbeline” 13-16)
Noel Brettell (1908-1991) has gone largely unnoticed by literary scholars, yet the poetry of this quiet, unassuming man ranks amongst the finest produced in Southern Africa in the second half of the twentieth century.

Shakespeare in Southern Africa Vol. 15 2003: pp. 29-38