The Penguin Book of Carribean Verse in English

by Burnett, Paula

• ISBN13: 9780140424607
• ISBN10: 0140424601
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-30
• Publisher: Penguin Global

Summary

Over the last few decades Caribbean writers - performance poets, newspaper poets, singer-songwriters - have created a genuinely popular art form, a poetry heard by audiences all over the world. At the same time, even at its most literary, Caribbean poetry shares the vigour of the oral tradition. Writers like Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott, and many other exciting new voices, are exploring ways of capturing the vitality of the spoken word on the page.

Table of Contents

Preface	xix
Introduction	xxiii
The Language Continuum	xxv
The Oral Tradition	xxvii
Before Emancipation	xxix
From Emancipation to Black Liberation	xxxv
The Literary Tradition	xliii
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries	xliii
The Twentieth Century	li
Conclusion	lxiii
Note on the Text	lxv
THE ORAL TRADITION	1	(96)
Anonymous
Work-songs, I and II	3	(1)
Dancing Songs, I and II	3	(1)
Guinea Corn	4	(1)
Songs, I and II	4	(1)
My Deery Honey	5	(1)
Freedom a Come Oh!	6	(1)
Song of the King of the Eboes	7	(1)
Negro Song at Cornwall	7	(1)
A Negro Song	7	(1)
A Popular Negro Song	8	(1)
Quaco Sam	8	(1)
Sangaree Kill de Captain	9	(1)
War Down a Monkland	9	(1)
Two Man a Road	10	(1)
Mas' Charley	10	(1)
I Have a News	10	(1)
There's a Black Boy in a Ring	11	(1)
Them Gar'n Town People	11	(1)
Itanami
Michael McTurk	12	(1)
Query	13	(1)
Deh 'Pon Um Again
Edward Cordle	13	(5)
Lizzie and Joe Catch a Thief	16	(1)
Lizzie and Joe in Court	17	(1)
Lizzie Discourses on the Small-pox
James Martinez	18	(3)
Dis Time No Stan' Like Befo' Time	19	(2)
My Little Lize
Marcus Garvey	21	(2)
Keep Cool	22	(1)
Centenary's Day
Slim and Sam	23	(1)
Sandy Gully	24	(1)
Johnny Tek Away Mi Wife
Anonymous	24	(5)
Sly Mongoose	25	(1)
Dis Long Time, Gal	26	(1)
Linstead Market	26	(1)
Dog Shark	27	(1)
Sammy Dead Oh	28	(1)
Glory Dead	28	(1)
Trouble Oh
Rastafarian chant	29	(1)
Zion Me Wan Go Home
Louise Bennett	30	(7)
Back to Africa	31	(1)
Colonization in Reverse	32	(1)
Dutty Tough	33	(1)
Excitement	34	(1)
Independance	35	(2)
Independence Twenty-One
Bruce St John	37	(3)
Bajan Litany	39	(1)
Subtlety	39	(1)
Wisdom
`Lord Kitchener'	40	(57)
Miss Tourist	41	(2)
`The Mighty Sparrow'
The Yankees Back	43	(1)
Get to Hell outa Here	44	(2)
`The Mighty Chalkdust'
Brain Drain	46	(2)
Marc Matthews
Guyana Not Ghana	48	(1)
Delano Abdul Malik De Coteau
Oui Papa	49	(1)
Motto Vision 1971	50	(6)
Paul Keens-Douglas
Tell Me Again	56	(2)
Wukhand	58	(3)
F. `Toots' Hibbert
Never Get Weary	61	(1)
Peter Tosh
African	62	(1)
Jimmy Cliff
The Harder They Come	63	(1)
Legon Cogil and Carlton Barrett
Dem Belly Full	64	(1)
Bob Marley
Trenchtown Rock	65	(1)
Christopher Laird
The Sea at Evening	66	(2)
Frederick Williams
De Eighties	68	(1)
Bongo Jerry
Mabrak	69	(3)
Eddy Grant
War Party	72	(1)
Lillian Allen
Belly Woman's Lament	73	(1)
I Fight Back	74	(1)
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Bass Culture	75	(1)
Reggae fi Dada	75	(4)
Mutabaruka
Free Up de Lan, White Man	79	(1)
Revolutionary Poets	80	(1)
The Change	81	(1)
You Ask Me	82	(1)
Oku Onuora
Last Night	83	(1)
Pressure Drop	83	(1)
Reflection in Red	84	(3)
Brian Meeks
Las' Rights	87	(1)
The Coup-clock Clicks	88	(2)
Michael Smith
Black Bud	90	(1)
I an I Alone or Goliath	91	(3)
Valerie Bloom
Trench Town Shock (A Soh Dem Sey)	94	(1)
Wat a Rain	95	(2)
THE LITERARY TRADITION	97	(272)
Anonymous
From A Pindarique Ode on the Arrival of His Excellency Sir Nicholas Lawes etc.	99	(2)
Francis Williams
From An Ode to George Haldane etc.	101	(1)
Nathaniel Weekes
From Barbados, I and II	102	(2)
James Grainger
From The Sugar-Cane, Books II and IV	104	(2)
John Singleton
From A General Description of the West Indian Islands
Book II	106	(1)
Book III	107	(3)
Anonymous
From A Poetical Epistle etc.	110	(1)
From Jamaica, a Poem in Three Parts etc.	111	(1)
J. B. Moreton
Ballad	112	(1)
James Montgomery
From The West Indies	113	(2)
M. J. Chapman
From Barbadoes	115	(1)
African Dirge	116	(1)
William Hosack
From The Isle of Streams, Stanzas X--XIV	117	(1)
Stanzas XLV-LI	118	(3)
Robert Dunbar
From The Cruise	121	(1)
From The Caraguin	121	(3)
Henry Dalton
The Emigrant Ship	124	(2)
Horatio Nelson Huggins
From Hiroona
The Introduction	126	(1)
Canto XII, §§ 23--6	127	(3)
Egbert Martin
Trade	130	(1)
National Anthem	131	(1)
Thomas MacDermot
From San Gloria (from Columbus's Soliloquy)	132	(1)
Cuba	132	(1)
A Market Basket in the Car	133	(1)
Donald McDonald
A Song of Those Who Died	134	(1)
Breakfast in Bed (Influenza in War-time)	135	(1)
A Citizen of -- the World	135	(2)
Alfred Cruickshank
God or Mammon	137	(1)
Let Us Be Frank	138	(1)
The Convict Song	138	(2)
W. Adolphe Roberts
On a Monument to Marti	140	(1)
Peacocks	140	(1)
The Maroon Girl	141	(1)
A Valediction	141	(1)
Claude McKay
Fetchin Water	142	(1)
Subway Wind	143	(1)
The White House	144	(1)
If We Must Die	144	(1)
Baptism	145	(1)
Jean Rhys
Our Gardener	146	(1)
Obeah Night	147	(4)
Frank Collymore
Ballad of an Old Woman	151	(1)
Monkeys	152	(1)
Triptych	152	(1)
J. E. Clare McFarlane
On National Vanity	153	(1)
Philip Sherlock
Jamaican Fisherman	154	(1)
Pocomania	154	(2)
Dinner Party 1940	156	(1)
A Beauty Too of Twisted Trees	156	(2)
Una Marson
Kinky Hair Blues	158	(1)
Brown Baby Blues	159	(1)
Gettin de Spirit	160	(1)
Politeness	160	(1)
To Wed or Not to Wed	161	(1)
Repose	162	(1)
Vivian Virtue
Waifs	163	(1)
The Hour	163	(2)
A. J. Seymour
From The Guiana Book	165	(3)
From For Christopher Columbus	168	(1)
The Well	169	(1)
I was a Boy	170	(1)
Phyllis Allfrey
The Child's Return	171	(1)
Love for an Island	171	(2)
Eric Roach
Love Overgrows a Rock	173	(1)
Piarco	174	(1)
At Guaracara Park	175	(2)
George Campbell
History Makers	177	(1)
In the Slums	177	(1)
Holy	178	(2)
Barbara Ferland
Ave Maria	180	(1)
Orange	180	(1)
Expect No Turbulence	181	(1)
John Figueroa
Birth is . . .	182	(1)
Portrait of a Woman (and a Man)	182	(2)
At Home the Green Remains	184	(1)
Wilson Harris
Charcoal	185	(1)
Laocoon	185	(2)
A. L. Hendriks
Hot Summer Sunday	187	(1)
Boundary	187	(1)
The Migrant	188	(1)
Will the Real Me Please Stand Up?	189	(1)
From `D'ou venons nous? Que sommes nous? Ou allons nous?', VI	190	(3)
Basil McFarlane
Arawak Prologue	193	(2)
Gloria Escoffery
Twins	195	(1)
No Man's Land	195	(1)
Farewell to a Jovial Friend	196	(1)
After the Fall	196	(2)
Louis Simpson
Jamaica	198	(1)
Arm in Arm	199	(1)
The Battle	200	(1)
The Inner Part	201	(1)
Back in the States	201	(1)
A Fine Day for Straw Hats	202	(2)
Working Late	204	(1)
James Berry
My Father	205	(1)
Ingrown	206	(1)
Back to Hometown Kingston	206	(1)
From Lucy: Holiday Reflections	207	(1)
Distance of a City	208	(1)
Fantasy of an African Boy	209	(2)
Jan Carew
Our Home	211	(1)
The Cliffs at Manzanilla	212	(1)
Faces and Skulls	212	(2)
Martin Carter
University of Hunger	214	(1)
From I Come from the Nigger Yard	215	(1)
Till I Collect	216	(1)
There is No Riot	216	(1)
For a Man Who Walked Sideways	217	(1)
The Great Dark	217	(1)
As New and as Old	218	(1)
Bent	219	(1)
Our Number	219	(1)
Evan Jones
Genesis	220	(1)
Walking with R.B.	221	(1)
November, 1956	221	(1)
The Song of the Banana Man	222	(2)
The Lament of the Banana Man	224	(2)
Shake Keane
Shaker Funeral	226	(2)
Coming Back	228	(2)
From Volcano Suite: Soufriere (79) I	230	(2)
Daniel Williams
We are the Cenotaphs	232	(3)
Andrew Salkey
Remember Haiti, Cuba, Vietnam	235	(1)
Soufriere	235	(1)
Clearsightedness	236	(1)
Postcard from Mexico, 16.X.1973	237	(1)
A Song for England	238	(1)
Dry River Bed	238	(3)
Henry Beissel
Pans at Carnival	241	(2)
Derek Walcott
A Far Cry from Africa	243	(1)
From Another Life, Chapter 20	244	(3)
Forest of Europe	247	(2)
The Spoiler's Return	249	(6)
Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Horse Weebles	255	(2)
Starvation and Blues	257	(3)
Schooner	260	(1)
Harbour	261	(3)
Edward Lucie-Smith
The Wise Child	264	(1)
Your Own Place	264	(1)
The Hymn Tunes	265	(1)
Imperialists in Retirement	266	(2)
Abdur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson
The Madwoman of Papine	268	(1)
Tycoon, Poet, Saint	269	(2)
December 1974: a Lament	271	(1)
Ivan Van Sertima
Volcano	272	(1)
Edward Baugh
Colour-scheme	273	(1)
Truth and Consequences	273	(1)
The Carpenter's Complaint	274	(1)
Country Dance	274	(2)
Howard Fergus
Forecast	276	(1)
Ethnocide	276	(1)
Lament for Maurice Bishop	277	(1)
Claire Harris
Framed	278	(1)
Policeman Cleared in Jaywalking Case	278	(3)
Mervyn Morris
Brief	281	(1)
The House-slave	281	(1)
The Early Rebels	281	(1)
To an Expatriate Friend	282	(1)
For Consciousness	283	(1)
Valley Prince	283	(1)
Family Pictures	284	(1)
One, Two	285	(1)
Peace-time	286	(1)
LeRoy Clarke
Where Hurricane	287	(3)
E. A. Markham
Don't Talk to Me about Bread	290	(1)
An Old Thought for a New Couple	291	(1)
Rewrite	291	(1)
Late Return	292	(4)
Grandfather's Sermon and Michael Smith	296	(3)
Dennis Scott
Homecoming	299	(1)
Grampa	300	(1)
Uncle Time	301	(1)
Epitaph	301	(1)
For the Last Time, Fire	302	(1)
Mouth	303	(1)
Version	304	(1)
Weaponsong	305	(1)
More Poem	305	(1)
Anthony McNeill
Don	306	(1)
The Victors	306	(1)
Residue	307	(1)
Saint Ras	307	(1)
Dermis	308	(1)
A Wreath for the Suicide Heart	309	(1)
Judy Miles
Suicide?	310	(1)
Seasons Greetings, Love and Revolution	311	(1)
Kevyn Arthur
Gospel	312	(1)
I Saw Three Ships	313	(1)
Pamela Mordecai
Tell Me	314	(1)
For Eyes to Bless You	315	(1)
Shooting the Horses	315	(2)
Roger McTair
Guerillas	317	(1)
Politics Kaiso	318	(2)
Olive Senior
Ancestral Poem	320	(1)
Epitaph	321	(1)
Wayne Brown
Noah	322	(2)
Ballad of the Electric Eel	324	(1)
England, Autumn	325	(1)
The Bind	326	(1)
Faustin Charles
Fireflies	327	(1)
Sugar Cane	328	(2)
Cyril Dabydeen
Rehearsal	330	(1)
Words and Legacy	330	(1)
The Fat Men	331	(1)
Fruit, of the Earth	332	(1)
Marlene Philip
Oliver Twist	333	(1)
Salmon Courage	334	(3)
Lorna Goodison
The Mulatta as Penelope	337	(1)
For Don Drummond	337	(3)
John Robert Lee
Return	340	(1)
Kite	341	(1)
third world snapshots	342	(1)
John Agard
Waiting for Fidel	343	(1)
Pan Recipe	343	(2)
Victor Questel
Tom	345	(1)
This Island Mopsy	346	(2)
Grace Nichols
Waterpot	348	(1)
Without Song	349	(1)
Old Magic	349	(1)
Kendel Hippolyte
good morning	350	(1)
Jah-Son/ another way	351	(5)
Dionne Brand
From Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defense of Claudia	356	(1)
From Military Occupations	357	(6)
David Dabydeen
Slave Song	363	(1)
Men and Women	364	(1)
Fragano Ledgister
On Parade	365	(1)
The Cities Have Fallen	365	(2)
Frederick D'Aguiar
Letter from Mama Dot	367	(1)
On Duty	368	(1)
Biographical and Explanatory Notes	369	(62)
Glossary	431	(10)
Index of Poets	441	(2)
Acknowledgements	443