Stylistically innovative, Anwar's use of everyday Indonesian helped make that language more dynamic as it evolved in the postwar years. Thematically, his poetry is intense, personal and emotional, given to hope, fury or anguish, sober reflection or wild fervour, playfulness or defiance. The poems resist easy interpretation, but are direct, uncomplicated and expressive of their author's fierce individualism. In just a few pages, Anwar can provoke, dismay, seduce and energize; it's not difficult to understand why he is still considered not only one of Indonesia's greatest poets, but something of a national hero as well - and a major influence down to the present generation of writers in the archipelago.