A comparative analysis of the work of the South African poet Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) and the Palestinian poet Maḥmūd Darwīsh (1942-2008), this study aims to demonstrate how a conflict of voices in their poetry emerged and developed across four stages, covering a period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. Based on a critique of theories proclaiming the ‘death of the author’, a productive approach to voice is elaborated while taking a modifying perspective on aspects such as ‘lyricism’, ‘polyphony’, and ‘impersonality’.