The Oxford Book of Carribbean Verse

The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse
edited by Stewart Brown and Mark McWatt
Publisher: Oxford
£14.99

'Considering the Caribbean is a region of 31 countries, four colonial languages, numerous creole dialects, 300 years of immigration (in chains, indentured or otherwise), and every race and creed known to man, any definitive poetry anthology worth its salt - especially one spanning a century - cannot help but showcase a massive range of voices and styles, risking breadth in preference to depth. That being the case, this anthology works as a wonderful beginner's guide to the amazing riches of Caribbean poetry.....It's also striking that a number of these poets have enriched the poetry scene in Britain: the infusion of Caribbean voices into what would otherwise have been a predominantly mono-racial, Eurocentric and, arguably, often lacklustre body of work. The poets who settled in Britain from its former Caribbean colonies from the 1950s onwards added dramatic colour to the poetic landscape, poets whose canvas is both the Caribbean and Britain, such as James Berry, EA Markham, Fred D'Aguiar and David Dabydeen. Likewise Grace Nichols and John Agard, both great readers of dynamic poetry. And who can ever forget live performances by dub poets Linton Kwesi Johnson, rocking the house with the insistent drumbeats of Jamaican patois, and Jean "Binta" Breeze's exuberant dramatic monologues, a progression on the humorous dialect poems of the iconic Louise Bennett, whose "Jamaica Oman" is a classic: "Jamaica oman cunny, sah! / Is how dem jinnal so? / Look how long dem liberated / An de man dem never know!"'
Bernardine Evaristo, The Guardian