West Indian Poetry: A School Anthology - Perfect for Literature Classes & Student Study

This Longman textbook for schools covers 20th century poets from Guyana to the Bahamas, and is divided into three sections: the first includes all Caribbean poetry that had been set for the "CXC English B examination" up to 1992, grouped by theme; the second section contains more poems, largely by the same authors, and grouped as before; and the third section has school-type questions for each of the poems in the first section (some of the questions refer to poems in the second section).In addition there is a 20-page introduction by Kenneth Ramchand (one of the two editors, if you can figure that out from the garbled Goodreads listing!) The bulk of this is a detailed analysis of Derek Walcott's "A Sea-Chantey", which provides excellent insight into Caribbean poetry: its themes, its imagery, its casual, unstructured use of rhyme and rhythm.Ramchand has his own axes to grind, however, both in getting over-intellectual and in his thin-skinned sense that the rest of the world looks on the Caribbean as being without depth or value. He therefore misrepresents the opening quotation about "everything there was calm and peaceful" as being a pejorative attack that the islands lack history and culture. In fact the entire poem is an almost religious hymn to the richness and strength (and calm, and peace) of island life.Absorbing this analysis which is still very worthwhile, and then working slowly through the book, I feel that there is a distinctive character to Caribbean poetry, coarser than British, more naturally rhythmic than American - a character that I am delighted to find I identify with.I used this book,'West Indian Poetry', many years ago in my teaching career.My copy was quite old and and scruffy and was in need of a new copy!I quite like the fact that it was revised and new edition and was looking much better than my old copy of many years.The anthology had included over 150 poems from well established poets as well as introducing less well - known poets.